Sounds like you were able to gain some fast results – I look forward to learning more via your link. As for how recent the Google Juice response is, I don't think it's as recent as you think. The rise in blogs were the writing on the walls of search engines: they could no longer wait more than a few hours to spider any site that demonstrated "blog patterns" of daily content additions. There are now so many other sources and site types of course, but all that came after most of the search contenders got a handle on the sea change in their world.

Thanks for the input, I'm looking forward to crossing paths soon!

I think the Google juice factor is huge. Correct me, but isn't it a relatively recent phenomenon? as in, the last few months? It certainly helps explain why my blog is getting steady increases in traffic. Word is leaking out, courtesy Google hits.

For me, the Twitter story unfolded gradually –

After a rocky start (February), what got me engaged (May) was an ability to index rich content using hashtags, and the ability to follow topic streams easily in tools like Tweetdeck. Exploration of the chat metaphor (Jun-Oct) yielded unexpected dividends, as a group of us built a phenomenal network of thought leaders and practitioners that would not have been possible without Twitter. But don't forget blogs: they are much needed to back up the tweets with content. As my blog matured (Aug-Nov), the virtual workflow fell into place .. innovators, insights, connections, context .. and now, content .. all the resources we'd need to collaborate our way to better places.

For more on the above, insights from my journey are here –
http://sourcepov.wordpress.com/category/new-media...

Only point I want to make: the benefits of Twitter are still not obvious to everyone. It took awhile for me to connect all the dots. Now that I have, as with your internet comparison, it's hard to imagine networking, brainstorming and researching without it.

Perhaps most important: I've made a great many friends on a number of continents.

Count me in as a die hard Twitter supporter. More will be joining our ranks, I think. But the true Twitter innovators are already moving in to leverage the gains available to early adopters. Remember the man who called out to the explorer, "Is it safe out there?" and the explorer called back: "Sure. Do you want to buy some land?"

See you online. Looking forward to learning more.