Twitter : a tool looking for a function?

"In the UK twitter traffic has increased by 974 per cent in the past year" So says Robin Goad of Hitwise.
He will be pleased that this appears in most of the U.K. newspapers, varying from the cut and paste of the "churnalist" to a thoughtful  analysis in timesonline.co.uk which highlights an upcoming feature which will make twitter more useful.

It's the useful bit that's difficult. When presented with shiny new technology we have become addicted to trying it so it's not hard to get traffic increasing by 1000%, all you need are a couple of celebrity names and to report that traffic is increasing. But is it useful? At first sight the ability to send cryptic messages of 140 characters to a website which allows anyone who registers to read them on their computer or mobile phone doesn't look promising. In general it would be useful for existing cohesive groups who need frequent updates on what is happening. The only particular examples I can think of are

- Journalists
- Celebrities wanting to send messages to their fans

I look forward to receiving lots of further examples in the comments. You can also tweet me or send a direct message to my twitter profile bof.