bits flying everywhichway

And so I’ve been brightkiting… and twittering… for all about half a week.  It’s been my new toy, and like all new toys, it’s gotten way more use than is probably warranted.  So, for now, it’s hard to say if it’s really all that better than my other favorite toys.

I can say that I like updating my status in one place.  I’m not so certain if the location-aware bits are all that useful.  I do know that it has introduced me to the existence of at least a handful of people. Will that actually lead to friendships?  I don’t know.

A good example is firewallender; we became friends via brightkite this week, and when I was at the Indiana Jones last premier last night, I checked in there.  I saw that she was there because she had done the same and brightkite told me so.  I didn’t go seek her out, but I happened to run into her.  The sad thing was that I took me a moment to figure out why she looked so familiar… and after we did, we geeked out for a few min about brightkite and (windows mobile|i)Phones and then went our separate ways.

But so far, that’s only happened once. It seems as if some people have a certain knack for meeting people online which actually translate into friendships IRL.  I’m not sure I’m one of those people, and I’m not sure brightkite is going to be the catalyst for that sort of transition… but I’m willing to keep trying.  Brightkite hasn’t quite reached critical mass yet since they’re in beta, so I imagine these folks will be few and far between.

I also have a feeling it’s going to get harder for me to keep all of my bits from flying to lands and people where they don’t quite belong.