Just like everything else you’ve been reading, Twitter saves the day, but on mobile it saves much more of the day.

Does anyone know Twitter’s mobile web traffic based on their ~1MM users? Has anyone really commented about how this is the most global platform the web has ever seen? Even Facebook has to translate into each language to become relevant and Google has to strategize about how to win in China. Twitter does not. I wouldn’t have known since it’s been 5 years since I’ve been back to China but Paul Denlinger asked on Twitter if Twitter was the US’s QQ. [The background is Chinese startup Tencent developed QQ, which is like AIM and a Twitter-like mobile site TaoTao, which has Chinese carrier SMS support.] QQ has not made Chinese users ignore Twitter - and why is that? It’s because once Twitter users anywhere figure out that they can twitter without text messaging there is an epiphany for each user as the text buzzing silences. We see Twitter as the asynchronous IM platform that only shows us what we choose to see from anywhere in the world at all times of day (sounds like the promise from web 1.0 doesn’t it?). The only difference between silicon valley and silicon alley is exactly 3 hours of twitter posts, china 12 hours (for half the year ).

Twitter is the first platform to actually address what people in mobile marketing conferences have said over and over with each successive death of mobile web: “It’s the most personal device, that people would less likely leave at home than their keys.”

If you carry your phone 18 hours a day that means that you have a much better shot at catching Robert Scoble’s updates about being on his startup tour in Israel this week on mobile. As I’m writing this I’ve just noticed that Kaiser Kuo is now following me. Kaiser blogs from Ogilvy in China, and if you follow him on Twitter (go ahead,) you might see some interesting stuff from him at 9pm as China wakes. If you get all of your information while at your desktop then you are missing out - you can catch updates as you wait for the bartender to pour your beer. I also can’t wait to see people from Cuba start twittering. I wouldn’t be able to deal with direct dialogue, but as Ian Schafer points out it’s the way to peek into our neighbor’s windows, because Twitter gets the rules of engagement just right.

Evan Neufeld from M:Metrics explained recently that mobile is about creating multi modal access in a world where mass marketing is dying.
So for now WAP, (m.twitter.com, twapper.com) iPhone Twitter sites (itweet.net, hahlo.com, twitter.thincloud.com) and whatever else you use to access Twitter is making your mobile phone a great place for mobile content discovery, especially for breaking news and even with news features and commentary. Once you land from Twitter to a blog or news site you might find a neatly placed advertisement if the site is optimized for mobile devices.

Twitter helps us find things and as Mark Cuban recently said if news is important it will find me. Michael Arrington showed us last week in his comcast/chicken example how Twitter can be used in emergencies, and Bill Thompson showed us how we can participate in conferences that we cannot attend, like SXSW during the Zuckerberg/Lacey panel.

Today at the min day Summit, George Janson of mediaedge:cia says that we need to figure out what people like to read about, not just what sites are popular per a demographic. Twitterers self select their groups to be the types of people that share content they like to read about. So these people may share links from any site, but there’s a great chance that what they share will be of interest to the people who follow them.

I recently found it very useful to do just that. I created an unofficial group for CTIA last month for the show in Las Vegas in what Chris Brogan would call “using twitter as presence.” I had only used Twitter at SXSW, but even without a Twitter following of my own, within a week “CTIA” got over 100 followers, and users created tweetups to discuss and play with new streaming video solutions that have recently launched.

The best experience on Twitter mobile of course is when someone posts a link from a mobilized site that can detect whether you are at your desk or on your phone. It is times like these when I can wait 600 days for the next version of the iPhone.

I’m trying to stop looking at Twitter (sort of) but even tonight on my way back from dinner I found out that my favorite podcaster Cali Lewis of GeekBriefTV wanted help finding a location for a Thursday night meetup in NYC on the Upper West Side. I couldn’t resist by saying the Samsung Experience Center in Columbus Circle where mobile monday events are held would be the right place for all ages. A tip from Darren Rowse is that as long as you know how to write headlines and lead with questions instead of ‘here’s my newest blog post’ you can break news or ask for help all the time and allow people to let what is not valuable scroll by them.

The interactions on Twitter are light and need to be valuable, which is the same refrain we sing here with crisp voices, about mobile websites that offer news, features, interactive polls or videos. Our lead developer often starts us off by saying ‘Simpler is Better’ on all features related to mobile web. And if the content gets too heavy for the time you have to spend on mobile then just time-shift, so you can get on with your regularly scheduled programming.

Shouldn’t the whole web be that way?

Tom Limongello | RSS 2.0 | Comment it , or trackback this post.