140Char

For every criticism of the presumed mindless nature of Twitter conversation, it’s just as easy to find it being used in an interesting and useful way.

For instance, published author Jeff Kirvin wasn’t sure of the way to kill a character in his current work, so he put the question out on Twitter. (HT Steve Rubel). And out of the suggestions he received he found some that might work, and enough to get him thinking more (Read more interesting details on brainstorming with the hive mind).

Not only is this an example of Twitter aiding creativity, which is a counterpoint to the idea that microblogging kills writing and full-length blogging, but it also shows an example of someone who isn’t hiding his work away until it’s complete – because, after all, the people tweeting suggestions aren’t likely to suddenlly find the drive to crank out 50,000+ words. So why worry about sharing some details and asking for some suggestions?

Adding a description field to Twitter list creation is a simple change which has rolled out today, but it’s a useful one.

Not only does it allow you to provide context to people who will view your list (Without creating a list title as long as a book), but presumably it will also be indexed to be searchable, enabling better list discovery. At the moment I’m seeing a huge number of lists created, often with plenty of duplication of topics and titles, and very few followers for each one.

A searchable description field aids this somewhat, although it may mean there’s a land grab to be the first with the best description for a topic – and that there will be consolidation around lists, with a long tail distribution curve in effect.

But it also shows that the evolution of Twitter is continuing, and the team aren’t about to take a break after rolling out Lists and the new Retweet feature (the Beta trial has just reached my account, and I haven’t really reached a conclusion about it yet!)

Given that the Suggested User List is being radically overhauled, user lists and descriptions look set to play a more prominent role in the Twittersphere, and the real-time web it inhabits.