I’m the first to admit that Twitter often baffles and overwhelms me. But some traveling Twitter gurus are experimenting with Twitter in interesting ways. Long before the mainstream news media had picked up the US Airways flight 1549 crash into the Hudson, twitter followers of Janis Krum saw a photo of the event, snapped on Krum’s iPhone. Twitterer “2drinksbehind” tweeted a photo and comments when the Continental Airlines flight slid off the runway and burst into flames in Denver. The terrorist attacks in Mumbai were also on twitter before they were reported. 

But besides the rapid dissemination of travel disaster news, there is potential for Twitter to change the way we all travel. Stuck in Newark overnight? (Why does that always happen to me?) Twitter for recommendations of where to stay or what to do. Shoes stink? Gary Arndt twittered for advice when his sandals started to smell on the road, and got plenty of deodorizing advice.

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