How to follow conversations on Twitter

After reading Dave’s post about Twitter being the new Facebook yesterday, I decided to give Digsby a go. (I’d heard of it previously, but I was semi-scared off by all the twittermania – it’s a bit like marmite).

Since I was only following a few tweeters there wasn’t of a flow – so I added a couple more higher profile tweeters, like Jeff Atwood’s Coding Horror.

This morning Jeff tweeted:

I hate #region so much. DIE #REGION DIE!

— Jeff Atwood (@codinghorror) May 15, 2008

I quite like #region in VS.NET, (it makes my code look/feel tidy). I was curious to why Jeff had a problem with it, so I tempted to reply to his tweet. But I stopped – thinking it was a bit of a fan-boy thing to do. Also I’m sure someone else would have asked the same question… which got me thinking how do you follow a conversation on Twitter?

I came across Summize (a search engine for Twitter) the other day, so tried that to see if anyone mentions #region or @codinghorror – which they do, but it’s a tad disjointed. I couldn’t follow a conversation.

So I turned to my old friend Google (how to follow conversations on twitter), and found Quotably!

Now I can follow the conversation: http://quotably.com/codinghorror/statuses/811735028

Quotably is powered by Summize, with some extra jiggery-pokery (and human intervention).

Update (03/01/2009): Quotably has now closed it’s doors. If anyone knows of a good alternative resource, please let me know in the comments.