I started out in the social web in the mid 90’s at bulletin boards and discussion forums. When my focus shifted to blogs, the comments in blogging generally seemed a poor substitute, more like guest books. There were exceptions of course, but they were still gardens in the conversation marketplace.

I had an idea today that Twitter is turning the relationship of blogging and commenting upside-down. Twitter is now a first stop central conversation marketplace, where the talk about blogs or the events of the day happens. Looked at socially, blogs, with their conversations followed clunkily in comments from blog to blog, or through aggregators, are not the main game anymore. Rather, they become more like important background material for what is talked about, and a form of identity.

Perhaps the essential drive to find real connection is serendipitously re-purposing micro blogging into the something closer to a satisfactory and more freewheeling conversation hub than other more calculated avenues have achieved so far. Perhaps FriendFeed and others will take it further.