When you first stumble across Twitter you only think it is another way of publishing status updates, very much in the same style as Facebook. This is not the case as it is much more than that, sure you get random Twitterings of the people you follow but you also get a constant stream of links, thoughts, photos etc. I have found this to be a really valuable source to see the thinking /workings of like-minded designers as well as industry professionals. It is also a great way to provoke debate and receive feedback in a concise and snappy way. This is helped by the the 140 character limit on any one Twitter.

Twitter has now started to enter the mainstream consciousness and I believe this is a really good thing. The more fellow designers, industry professionals as well as website updates that are posted the better. Also more and more websites themselves are Twittering to try and connect with users of their sites. This really helps to engage with their audience and provides a platform to promote their content as well as interact with follows on Twitter. Here are my favourite Twitters:

Websites -

http://twitter.com/ilovetypography
http://twitter.com/101bestwebsites
http://twitter.com/colourlovers
http://twitter.com/DesignerDepot
http://twitter.com/smashingmag
http://twitter.com/fubiz
http://twitter.com/cssmania
http://twitter.com/popurls
http://twitter.com/FontFont
http://twitter.com/designerstalk

Professionals -

http://twitter.com/abduzeedo
http://twitter.com/Hicksdesign
http://twitter.com/markboulton
http://twitter.com/penflare
http://twitter.com/chrisspooner
http://twitter.com/justcreative
http://twitter.com/ryancarson
http://twitter.com/mj12982
http://twitter.com/larissameek
http://twitter.com/vpieters

Individuals -

http://twitter.com/pennjillette
http://twitter.com/Wossy
http://twitter.com/Dave_Gorman
http://twitter.com/iainlee
http://twitter.com/richardpbacon
http://twitter.com/RealDMitchell
http://twitter.com/charltonbrooker
http://twitter.com/misterwallace
http://twitter.com/Herring1967
http://twitter.com/timlovejoy

Follow me on Twitter -

http://twitter.com/jamesreeve

Symbaloo is stylish customisable web aggregator that provides a welcomed alternative to Netvibes, iGoogle and Pageflakes. The pages have a fully customisable interface that allows for grids to be created at many different sizes. You can add pre-designed buttons or your own custom buttons to suit your needs. It even has some neat little apps that can also be places alongside web links. You can also publish your own page to show friends and you are able to brand the homepage to become an online start page for your clients/users (Business solutions)

Website URL: www.symbaloo.com/uk/

The news page has a slightly different execution by populating the boxes with images that represent a news item. The user has to hover over each image for a snippet of the news item.

The feeds page is where you can aggregate all of your RSS feeds and you can move/add/delete to suit your needs. It is one probably the best displayers if feed content I have used, due to the simple design.

For more information take a look at the tour here: Symbaloo Tour