Twitter loves Sharks?

Twitter has been all over the news lately. Has it become so over popularized that it has gone out of trend? As in has it jumped the shark? Author Mark McKinnon wrote Twitter Jumped the Shark This Week where he thinks Twitter has become a thing of the past. He makes valid points which encourages me to stop posting so many foolish thoughts.

Some may agree Twitter is on its way out and then again it may just have reached its peak of discovery. Prior to all this media attention Twitter was used by very few, most of which were tech lovers and library professionals, and now it's getting crowded. For some this social media has indeed become useless because it has lost its elitism. Come on now, think about it, think some more. We like elitism especially in DC the land of never ending politics. We like using something few have heard about and even fewer use. Once that shiny feeling fades the next new product is sought. I'm not bothered by this sudden surge of users nor the nay-sayers moving on. Yes it is a distraction yet far less of a distraction than Facebook, MySpace, or even the water cooler gossip. Twitter still remains what it was: a way to communicate briefly. I'm still going to use Twitter. It is my IM connection and there are several others who have done the same. I find it less bothersome than those IM products out there because I am able to chat with folks but not feel like I'm being overwhelmed with the messages. For others it has replaced the chat rooms of the past which to me felt so confined and strange. There are several reasons why this will continue to fascinate people and several reasons to repel people. I am wondering what are your thoughts?

If you use Twitter:

Do you use it often?
What do you like about Twitter?
Why do you use it?

If you have used Twitter and do not anymore, why? What did you dislike about it?

Image finder search engine

I'm behind the times on this but it's still a very useful tool especially for those in the medical professions. The Yale Image Finder search engine is a great way to locate biomedical images. The Bioinformatics article: Yale Image Finder (YIF): a new search engine for retrieving biomedical images explains the reason for its development. David Rothman gives a great brief review of this that you might find interesting.