It's still experimental, but Dave Winer has opened up his free TwitterGram service, which allows you to post your Flickr updates to Twitter, with the photo title and a link to the photo.

(via BijanBlog, who says he's been happy with the private beta)

I speak from experience, when I say that commuting in and out of Washington, DC can be a challenge. Fortunately, there are many routes in and out of the city. Unfortunately, you don't often know where the traffic jams are until you're in the middle of them.

Now, there are two new Twitter-based tools to help commuters get in and out of our nation's capital more efficiently:

• For drivers, there is Twitter: thebeltway, which lists up-to-date traffic alerts from Traffic.com and Yahoo! Maps.
• And for commuters who take public transportation, there is Twitter: WMATA to let us know when there are delays on the Metro.

All you need is a cell phone and a Twitter account, and you can adjust your trip in or out of the city, accordingly.

Boulder, Colorado-based web designer Andrew Hyde has a really thoughtful and specific list of criticisms for the new look on Twitter.com:

1. Color: The original color scheme ... work[s] really well, and the new colors really are not needed.
2. Unneeded/ Off Whitespace: Twitter is a simple web app, why isn’t the design simple?
3. Nav is Sloppy: Is this really the nav you need?
4. Countdown Clock: Distracting movement on the screen for every character I type
5. Update Box: Is it a box?

I have a lot of respect for designers and UI guys, and this is exactly why: they see some things that I don't (e.g. problems with the color palate), and can articulate other things that I cannot (e.g. the countdown timer just seemed "weird"). Kudos, Andrew!

azcentral.com provides an internet marketing glossary, including this bizarre explanation of Twitter:

Twitter - A new form of social media used for posting "away" notices on instant messaging. For example, I could notify everyone in my network if I am heading out to dinner and want company or just need some time alone.

Well, yeah, you could use it for that. But they totally miss the mark.

I've sent an email to the author through her site, which claims she's "responsive like a Porsche 911 Carrera", so hopefully I'll get some sort of insight.

Update: Amanda Vega informs me (with impressive speed) that her much longer explanation was heavily edited. I have updated this post accordingly. Thanks, Amanda!

The How-To Geek has a nice tutorial on how to use Twitter from inside Microsoft Outlook. He introduces us to OutTwit, one of the most popular Windows clients for Twitter and includes several screenshots to show how it works.

Lots of tweaks on Twitter.com: the fonts, the tabs, the colors. Most noticeably, the "characters left" indicator is larger. What do you guys think of the new look?

The campaign of long-shot Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul (Twitter: RonPaul2008) has an official Twitter account now.

His less-than-100 followers pale in comparison to the audiences of Democrats Barack Obama (Twitter: BarackObama) and John Edwards (Twitter: johnedwards), who have and 5,000 and 3,600, respectively.

But Paul is known for having some seriously dedicated followers, and I wouldn't be surprised if he narrowed that gap.

I came across this interesting anecdote of a bloggers's first 90 days on Twitter:

I “get” Twitter. I like the idea, I think there’s a lot of uses for the service, and I’m pretty happy with the feature set. I’ve found some people who are using Twitter in interesting ways, and two real-life friends also Twitter. When it’s good, Twitter can be a lot of fun.

On the other hand, using Twitter feels like shouting down a well most of the time. I can count on the fingers of one hand the people who’ve actually had any interaction with me on Twitter (including the friends). It’s hard to stay enthusiastic about something when you get so little feedback.

All in all, I’d give my first 90 days with Twitter a B. I’m not inclined to stop Twittering, but it’s in no danger of replacing my blog any time soon.

It's a reasonable assessment, though I have had better luck getting dialogue going.

But I don't know that Twitter is supposed to replace blogging, any more than IM is supposed to replace email or text-messaging is supposed to replace phone conversations.

Some things (e.g. a song recommendation) don't necessarily merit a blog post. Others (say, anything longer than 140 characters) don't fit into Twitter, literally or figuratively.

I believe these pairs of technologies complement each other. I've said before that everyone should have a blog, and I'll also say that everyone should have Twitter. Your thoughts, ideas and observations are interesting. Share them with others.