Thursday, March 17, 2005

Texting On The Rise

I don't know why I found myself laughing at this story. It's from a news agency that is clearly behind the curve when it comes to reporting and they are discussing the adoption of a new technology.

I wonder if they have even considered how to use it for their own benefit. Probably not.


(In my deeeeep voice) This is CNN.com Texting on the rise in US.

NEW YORK (AP) -- A quarter of American adults who have cell phones have used the devices' text-messaging features within the past month, a new study finds.

Usage correlates with age: 63 percent of cell phone users ages 18-27 have used text messaging compared with 31 percent for ages 28-39 and 7 percent for those over 60.

The Pew Internet and American Life Project also found that 28 percent of people who text message have received unsolicited commercial messages that way.

Text messaging allows cell phone users to receive and send short messages to other cell phone users or e-mail recipients. Services also are available to receive news alerts and other information through text messaging.

Also known as SMS, for Short Message Service, "texting" is highly popular in Europe and Asia but only starting to catch on in the United States.

Pssst, hey CNN you want to get in touch with more people? Offer a SMS alert service for certain keywords or topics. How about an alert system for breaking news? Send me an SMS of a topic that I'm interested in. I don't watch your channel but I would be interested in this. FOX News should do the same.

The only problem with CNN and their timely email for breaking news is that I just got an alert that a barrel of oil hit $50.

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