Josh Bancroft has noticed that there is a user on Twitter with the username CNN Breaking News.
It certainly looks like the news channel someone is experimenting with using the mobile social networking tool to break news headlines.
Twitter is certainly a clever technology combining blogging, text messaging and social networking. The site allows users to post 160-character posts that can be delivered to their network of friends and assorted online stalkers via SMS or AOL Instant Messenger.
It can be a fun way to keep in touch with many friends simultaniously. Over the holiday period, my phone was bombarded by Twitters sent by food blogger Graham Holliday detailing his gluttony over the holidays, 160 characters at a time.
So far, that’s how I have been using it — as a toy. But CNN’s this experiment suggests that it has potential as a platform for more serious applications for journalists like delivering news and obtaining instant feedback from readers’ mobile phones.
I may eventually work out how to use Twitter to deliver short news items. For now, you can subscribe to my feed of odd random text messages from me by adding me as a friend on Twitter.
Update: In the comments, Bobbie Johnson points out that we may be dealing with a mashup of sorts. Credit is apparently owed to James Cox, and not anybody in Atlanta. It’s a great idea whoever is doing it — I hope more useful applications like this will be created for Twitter.
Update2: Cox explains his mashup elsewhere.
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Not sure it’s actually got anything to do with CNN, Martin: as far as I can tell from my Twitter friends list it was built by James Cox as an experiment to combine APIs (http://twitter.com/imajes).
Shows what can be easily done with the right open code…
Ah yes. That was the possibilty I considered when I went out after hitting publish. Oops.
Good idea either way.
It is fun and it does have potential. I think I’m right in saying the Sam Sethi/TechCrunch story ‘broke’ on Twitter
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cubicgarden/321482769/
However, the fact that Twitter updates sent via mobile are hellishly unreliable – at least from my French mobile – is rather annoying.
As for bombarding… I reckon Suw Charman is the most showered person on the planet. The girl can Twitter
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