If you’ve been on Twitter anytime so far this year, you know how bad 2009′s been treating it. First a phishing scheme, then a completely unrelated hacking, and then MacWorld clogged the service’s tubes. Wednesday brought a respite, but Thursday the Failbots and Fail Whales returned early and often. When those weren’t popping up, users were greeted with timelines an hour or more into the past, making Twitter largely unusable. To make matters worse, today’s starting with more of the same. (I blew off some steam about this Wednesday night on Serious Business, and if their problems continue, Twitter will get another tongue-lashing next week. The Twitters are serious business.)
A lot of people are new to Twitter since its epic meltdown this summer, so they may not know that there are a couple other places you might be able to find your Twitter friends while Twitter’s down — and, for that matter, even while it’s up, as each service brings a set of unique and valuable qualities to the table that make them worth sticking around. read more »
