You can't buy this kind of advertising ...

Twitter is taking over the world. I thought facebook was bad. But seriously, the world, celebrities especially are OBSESSED. My google reader newsfeed just now literally had seven different posts that contained some version of the word Twitter.

Yes, I am on Twitter. I have been for a long time. I am not even really sure why because very few of my friends are and none of them are active (despite my best attempts). But, now that it is taking over the world, it is more of a newsfeed than anything else because all the news outlets use it to post headlines. Including the humble little Daily Times.

But, I am becoming convinced that this obsession is less of an obsession and more of product placement. It just can't be a coincidence that not only do all of these television shows use twitter, but mention it on air about 30 times a show. Ellen talks about it constantly, as does MSNBC. I realize that I am being a little conspiracy theory here, but I honestly think that it can't all be for real.

I have been a member of twitter since I heard them talk about it on a geek podcast a few years ago. I thought it was a little strange and stalker-esque of course, but, still I thought I would give it a try. And maybe it is just that it has worked it's way up to proclivity, but I doubt it. And mostly for this reason. There aren't nearly as many real person users on twitter as there are people using it for advertising .. more or less.

Here is how a little used website became an obsession for me. Friendbar. A little firefox plug in that allows me to view facebook and twitter updates at the top of my browser in a constant stream. And I can update my status and my Twitter at the same time just by clicking and typing. In fact, I rarely, if ever, actually visit either site. So, both have become a sort of news crawl at the top of my screen. Not unlike the crawl at the bottom of CNN, only clickable! And this is where it becomes straight up advertising. As MSNBC puts up breaking news, I click on it, and it takes me to the story. Yep. They get an individual click on their website by posting headlines on Twitter. And unless you have been living under a rock, you know that news is facing a bit of a dilemma monetarily these days and is moving to an ad driven system. How do you sell ads on your website? Individual clicks.

Conspiracy. All driven by advertising dollars. I can't wait until we start hearing about how the headline "Shaq tweets at half-time of Suns Game" comes back as "Twit scandal: Shaq tweets made by assistant, Twitter pays premium for Shaq Tweets". Because we all know, nothing builds a brand faster than a celebrity wearing it.