A few weeks ago I succumbed to the Twitter phenomenon, signing up for an account, acquiring as many followers as possible, and even adding a Twitter widget to this blog. I have to admit that I used to think Twitter was the absolute dumbest thing ever, but my innate sociable personality overruled my more reasonable thoughts, and thus I created an account.

It wasn't until the Iran election fiasco and subsequent terrifying aftermath that my opinion on Twitter started to shift. At a time when the authoritarian Iranian government was shutting down conventional media, Twitter became the only mechanism to get information out of the country. I gained a new respect for a service I had relegated to people famous for being famous - say, Paris Hilton or Kim Kardashian, for example. But still, it seems that before the inspiring coverage from Iranian citizens in their "Green Revolution", Twitter seemed a fad headed for the same fate as Pogs, Tamagotchis, and Furbies. As Bill Maher put it, "Twitter didn't save Iran. Iran saved Twitter."

Then there's that little issue of the company actually making money. How many of you know that Twitter has been around since August 2006? That's so long ago that Democrats couldn't capitulate to insurance companies in Congress because they still weren't in power! All sad jokes aside, the company has been around this long and still hasn't developed a working business model to do what companies need to survive - you know, make a profit.

So whether you think Twitter still is just a medium that lets people squeeze out their 16th minute of fame or a reputable service that will help replace dictators with democracy, all of this is moot if they can't monetize all their new site traffic. Instead of seeing the little Twitter bird advertising its own service, maybe it will be forced to join the Pets.com sock puppet and do a double promo for BarNone car loans.