The year of Twitter?

So, it appears that Twitter is hitting a bit of a tipping point and starting to become mainstream.

I have been on Twitter for a while and apart from adding the odd (in number) update and it allowing me to follow some incredibly interesting people (check out Stephen Fry: twitter.com/stephenfry) i didn't think that it had much in the way of practical application.

However it would appear that i may, don't fall off your seats, it does happen sometimes, be wrong.

I just read a really interesting blog post (found via Twitter and posted by Poke NY's creative director Tom Ajello) on the way people are using Twitter... from a consumer perspective these are pretty interesting, however it would be interesting to see whether Twitter have any research on usage and/or plans to build a business model around any its practical applications, paid for listings for service related brands so people can find them easier maybe and some sort of Twitter directory enquiries?

It then seemed that another group were have the same sort of conversation on the WeAreSocial blog

Would be interesting to know if anyone who reads this has found any other application for it?