Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on Seattle 2.0, and imported to GeekWire as part of our acquisition of Seattle 2.0 and its archival content. For more background, see this post.

By Matt Hulett

Seattle obviously received an unusually large amount of snow over the last week.  I am glad that it has melted and that all of us Seattleites can dig out of our respective homes and enter the world again.  Travel during this time was brutal, especially for folks that we’re trying to travel into and away from Seattle around the holidays.  I was actually impacted last Monday when trying to fly back to Seattle from San Jose.  I was armed with the usual weather alerts, flight alerts, etc.  But, what I was really interested in was knowing real-time Seattle weather and driving conditions.  Local TV and flight-oriented information didn’t capture what was really happening on the ground and was rather untimely.  I couldn’t get any relevant, meaningful information.  My sentiment was also shared by Cory Bergman, who runs the blog, MyBallard.com  
 
So where did I turn?  I turned to Twitter and Twitter applications.  I hate to sound like a Web 2.0 heathen but I am not a Twitter user.  I find it too hard to follow conversations and to search around important conversations.  Web entrepreneur, Loic Le Meur, wrote an interesting post recently concerning how Twitter should enable search by authority and there are some interesting applications developing that build in thread discussion formats to Twitter feeds like Tweetree.  An example of useful Twitter application is TweetWeather.  While I was stuck in the San Jose Airport, I found it incredibly useful to filter thru conversations exclusively around Seattle weather.   It was addicting.  I could get really interesting insight into what was happening around the Seattle area.  This was an interesting way for me to monitor real-time conditions at the most local level. A much better solution than relying on traditional media.
 
I believe that one of my items for 2009 will be to more frequently utilize Twitter.  Mashable has a great post on tons of social media tips and tricks.  Please send in your tips and feedback here.  I have been baptized but I now need some guidance.  How do you use Twitter?  What needs to happen for Twitter to become more meaningful?  What are your favorite Twitter apps?
 

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