The Library of Congress will archive all public Tweets from 2006 forward. This will be a researchable resource.
Within a week of this announcement, Twitter announced that it's roadmap wil soon be modified to add locations and user streams. This “real time data” will be available in the next few days through desktop applications.
Third party applications developed for Twitter users have shown commercial success and these announcements are expected to build on past efforts.
To the research community, this becomes yet another online resource. Applying simple filters like those being developed by Google (as noted recently in other Blogs by this author), it becomes possible to identify individual users of Twitter based upon associative interests and grammatical stylings. The unique “finger print” created by know “friends” on social sites, coupled with any specific data Tweeted on the account and a triple-whammy verification by way of writing analysis, creates a high level of assurnace that individuals, even those seeking to be private, cannot remain anonymous upon close examination and analysis. Understanding the derivation of your profile name might reveal something about you as well: AnimaeKitty, RoseSmith, StarWarsFan#12, etc... obvious interest references, huh?
For legal purposes, it becomes even more certain when social network sites receive subpoenas to turn over IP Address and log records, as to the exact identity of a person.
The newest features allowing Tweets from stores, shops, eateries and the like, make it easy to connnect a credit card or debit card payment to a specific person at a specific location at an exact time. Get a copy of the CCTV loop and you have a face to put with the Tweet, the credit card and the suspect....yep, everyone's a suspect. Lol.
What a world we live in, eh?