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Let’s try something a little different as the focus goes to Twitter (yet again) and its impact on the free world’s ability to function properly. I have said on many occasions that regular users of Twitter are not the best people to be actually examining Twitter’s success or lack thereof. Why? Mainly because there seems to be this assumption that the rest of the world understands what Twitter is as well as social media ‘regulars’ do. The simple reality is that that kind of thinking is, how can I say this diplomatically….. stupid. The real fact of the matter is that most of the world is confused by Twitter. Fortunately, Biz and the boys (and girls) at Twitter are recognizing this fact and are taking steps to remedy the situation.

Later this week, a huge portion of the world’s population will be tuning in to watch the Olympics on TV, on the internet, and on their mobile devices. Riding high on this media wave is Twitter, the official digital communication partner for NBC’s coverage.

In the past, we’ve seen Twitter streams integrated into sites for events such as The Super Bowl and we’ve seen Twitter rise to the top as the source of information during a natural disaster. This time, though, Twitter isn’t just reporting the news, they’re actually becoming a part of the experience.

The Twitter hub at NBCOlympics.com is like nothing we’ve seen before. Here’s a partial screenshot. The full site is so big and so deep, I’d need at least ten shots to cover it all.

Well, looks like Twitter has arrived for real. Companies are considering the service for their marketing and customer efforts. There still appears to be significant hype around every time someone at Twitter has gas. Twitter is looking to protect its trademark and is looking to trademark other sounds from nature like chirps and peeps. So what’s next? Well, since it is the Internet what would talking about Twitter be without now mentioning porn and spam?

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has said recently that the service will be a success when people stop talking about it and just accept it as a utility. With MediaPost talking about the proliferation of porn and spam that chatter isn’t likely to end anytime soon. That is, of course, unless Twitter does something about it.

I know it may appear I go looking for trouble, but I promise you I just like to share with you my concerns. In the case of Twitter’s update to its Terms of Service, I started thinking about what the changes could mean to us users.

I’m a huge fan of Twitter, and very much rely on the service for my micro-communications, so I hope none of these scenarios ever materialize.

1. Ownership of Tweets

While Twitter’s new Terms state that you maintain full ownership of your Tweets, it provides no guarantee that you can get access to, or download, such content.

We reserve the right at all times (but not [sic] will not have an obligation) to remove or refuse to distribute any Content on the Services and to terminate users or reclaim usernames.

For quite a while now everyone and their brother has been lobbing the “when are you going to really monetize Twitter” bombs into the micro-blogging giant’s front yard. It’s a popular thing to do but as of late that cry has lost a little steam (in part due to having real business people like Dick Costolo at the helm) and the latest move by Twitter could put a dent in one of the Internet industry’s favorite pastimes for sure.

The Next Web first reported the new Twitter for Business section and reported

The new version of business.twitter.com will provide business owners with twitter success stores, ideas, tips, tools and resources. Some of the tools included are information on promoted products and tutorials one how to communicate with customers using mobile.

As marketers and just people in general, we depend on statistics and analysis to understand the world around us. We also depend heavily on observation, opinion and perceived expertise of others. We have many different ways to take in information and data about the world around us including social media, which has its pros and cons. The major pro is that we can know have a view of many things that we could never have had before while the biggest con is just that: we can be easily conned.

Trust me, I would have not used that headline if it had not been provided for the post by none other than Twitter itself.

In its continuing quest to carve out its place in the social media landscape the folks at Twitter are announcing that essentially the mantra is (as far as branding goes) that “bird, bird, bird is the word!” (see video at the end for a chuckle or two).

The Twitter blog posted

Over the past six years, the world has become familiar with a little blue bird. The bird is everywhere, constantly associated with Twitter the service, and Twitter the company.