Crowd sourcing: If you have no idea what crowd sourcing is or how it could work for journalists, you must read this post on Beat Blogging. The post gives simple examples where journalists are asking readers for story ideas or for their opinions. For example, the post showcases a Sacramento Bee reporter using his blog to crowd source opinions on what it’s like to be back after being furloughed because of California state budget constraints. We used to just call this good reporting.

Tweeting news: If you’re skeptical of the value of Twitter to news organizations, read this post. It explains how the news of the fatal plane crash this week in Buffalo spread through Twitter with frequent updates. Twitter gives a blow by blow witness description of the crash that you couldn’t get from a traditional news source until much later. Why wouldn’t newspapers want to be able to break news in this immediate way?

Twitter sees lucrative opportunities in search, albeit a different kind of search than what Google offers, and, as co-founder Biz Stone told Ad Age recently, "we'll certainly be exploring those." It's because of the potential it sees in search that the Twitter co-founders walked away from a $500 million offer from Facebook -- not just the terms of the deal, said Todd Chaffee, an Institutional Venture Partners general partner and a new Twitter backer. He said contrary to some reports, Facebook offered not just stock but substantial cash in the deal.

I told him what I thought of Twitter as a micro-blogging service: it’s a collection of emotional grunts. But it’s wonderful nonetheless. And enough people are hooked on it that Twitter has reached critical mass. If something big is going on in the world, you can get information about it from Twitter. Twitter also gathers other information, like people’s experiences with products and services as they interact with them. A couple of months ago, for example, I was stuck in the airport and received extremely poor service from Lufthansa. I twittered my displeasure, which made me feel better - at least I was doing something besides wait in an endless line. I’ve also Twittered complaints about the W Hotel (no Internet, cold room) and Comcast (the usual Internet gripes).

Ever wondered what Hashtags are on Twitter? They’re words with #’s in front of them. Today Sherice Jacob (follow her at @sherice) from iElectrify explains what hashtags are and how to use them. Twitter is a great place to find and follow people with the same hobbies and interests as you have. Unfortunately, once you have as many followers as Darren does, it starts to get overwhelming to stay in touch with them all, and make sure the right information goes to the right people.

HootSuite is the ultimate Twitter toolbox. With HootSuite, you can manage multiple Twitter profiles, add multiple editors, pre-schedule tweets, and measure your success.