I vividly remember the Internet a few years back when your typical home page was Yahoo or MSN or AOL. The advent of social networks such as Twitter and Facebook and advances in web browsers such as tabbed browsing has surely led to a decline in these traditional news sources being the first pages people view when they go on the web.

This evening I log onto Twitter and every so often I make it a point to look at the trending topics. At the top of the trending topics was I-75. That immediately sparked my interest to make me want to find out what was happening on Interstate 75 – apparently a gasoline tanker had exploded into flames with the blaze melting the overpass.

Is it surprising that Twitter is the first source of information for a good number of people? A quick scan of the aforementioned sites had stories about Richard Jefferson getting cold feet or a 23 quadrillion credit card bill. Maybe it’s just me, but I think the collapse of a major highway that serves 160 thousand motorists a day deserves a little bit more attention than a guy deciding he wasn’t ready for marriage.

You’ll no doubt hear the critics say that Twitter cannot be trusted as a news source due to vulnerability to hoaxes, inaccuracy etc. In today’s example, we were able to see images such as this one:

www.screentweet.com

Not unless this is a scene from an upcoming summer blockbuster, you can’t make this stuff up. I mean, how much verification is needed to make user accounts trustworthy. Were people still doubting when the first pics of the plane on the Hudson emerged? I don’t discount the fact that inaccurate information is going to be broadcast over social networks. Surely those thirsting for verification eventually get their satisfaction through the trusted media houses.

One thing we have to note is the change in how we receive information. We have CNN iReports for instance, which is user generated content. Critics may call it whatever they want, but in this web 2.0 age, I don’t need a detailed report on a news item. A summary works just as well for me, such as in this instance where all I needed to know was that the I-75 bridge collapsed after a tanker explosion.

Love it or hate it, Twitter is and will continue to be a source of news, providing users with information faster than traditional news sources.