How I’ve realized the power of the micro blogging service which is changing the web
Last night I’ve realized for the first time how my approach/interaction with the web and to the information on the web has changed.
Until yesterday I was thinking that all the hype and buzz about Twitter (included the last Time cover story) was a little bit exaggerated despite the fact that I’m a happy Twitter user , or - maybe I should say - Tweetdeck user acknowledging the fact that is the “world” built around the micro-blogging platform (clients, hashtags, search, integration with other social networks and other services and so on) which contributed to the incredible success of Twitter.
Saturday and Sunday together with European elections, Major election in my hometown (Florence, Italy) were taking place as well.
I was curios, after a thrilling NBA finals Game 2 won by Lakers to check the news related to the major election. The most obvious thing for me, was to go and look for hashtags #Renzi and #Galli (the last names of Major candidates) on Tweetdeck …. and I was surprised to find few related tweets and no a sign of “real time” updates about elections (see picture below).
I’m pretty sure that the use of Twitter is not spread out in Europe (and in Italy in particular) as it is in the US. But what struck me the most was that for me it was almost obvious to look at the “streams” of tweets as the most easy way to have updated information about an important topic.
The second thing that struck me was that pointing my browser to the “traditional” on-line newspaper pages, I had this uncomfortable feeling of looking to something outdated and totally useless. Then I realized that I was looking not just for the results, for the mere data (which, by the way, weren’t available yet, enhancing my sense of being cut off an event that was happening at that moment), but I was hoping to find comments, people discussing results, I was looking for the “social dimension” of the event trying to get into the news right while it was happening. This is a “need” that I haven’t had before and to be honest I’m a little bit surprised and also “scared” about it. But besides these thoughts ( on which I’ll probably spend some few words on another pot sometimes soon) I must admit that the “real time web” has already took its place as new paradigm in my interaction with online information and, while hoping to see for the next administrative elections to follow a @comunefirenze for instant updates, I decided to use - taking advantage of the time zone- the “old” mobile phone to call my parents for updates. 
