I got hooked on a relatively new site this last week or two called Twitter.

For those not in the know, Twitter is a site that offers you a simple premise. It’s kind of a public away message of sorts for people who may be out and about and want to communicate information about where they are and where the reader isn’t.

It doesn’t have to be used like that, you can also send it random thoughts, quotes, information, and anyone choosing to become a “follower” of your twitter account gets alerted of that information when you post it.

Twitter allows you to add your IM and cell phone SMS info, so you get alerted of these “tweets” anywhere you want to be, provided that you have set Twitter to “follow” other friends’ posts. You can also post new Twitter entries from your cell phone or IM client.

Another option on the Mac to post and read Twitter entries is a program called Twitteriffic, from Icon Factory. This one uses the Twitter API to check for new posts every X amount of minutes and shows you updates, along with a sound when they appear (which can be turned off). It’s a very well made program for such a new service.

One useful feature is the ability to join group feeds, such as the MacWorld 2007 group, and Sundance 2007′s group. These feeds are like a public message board for people who are attending these events to share info and tips to each other while they are mobile at the show. This is an amazingly useful thing at somewhere like MacWorld, since the WiFi there was terrible, and who wants to carry a laptop around all the time when you could find and alert other people about great things happening there through any IM client on a smartphone or a SMS text message?

This service is just beginning and frankly has quite a bit of potential. I can’t wait to try it out at MacWorld next year if i go.