Agreed that Twitter is not really a conversational tool … I think that its real value is in the contribution its users make to giving every-one heads-up on interesting stuff (news, products, companies, experiences, whatever). These inform us, and give us direction in exploring the ‘ether’ … particularly if we have been selective in who we follow.

The BIG problem is I think a technical one … and many users simply don’t understand just how much traffic Twitter is generating as it grows, and connections grow with it. Check out http://twitter.scripting.com/spewage.html … which gives a graphic illustration of the problem.

ALL Twitter alternatives are going to have this problem, if the application is about getting ALL of your messages to ALL of your contacts/friends. Even Google struggles with this. Don’t believe me … check out http://www.splitbrain.org/projects/gbrain … this Firefox addon was creating Twitter-like traffic problems, which impacted on Google’s own services.

Bottom line … communication tools might come and go … but REAL conversation still remains 1 on 1 … if its ‘1 to many’ it isn’t really about conversation, is it! Is it?