My nerd is showing.

I’m very distracted at work because the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) is this week. It’s the video game nerd’s annual weeklong overdose on video game trailers and gadget pr0n. It usually has great coverage from any media or individual at the convention relaying the goings-on back to their home Web site. But this year coverage has gotten much better thanks to Twitter.

In case you’re wondering what’s this Twitter I’m talking about, it is a miniblogging Web site similar to your Facebook status where you try to get your point across in very few characters. The limit for Twitter is 140 per post.

It’s not hard to go to Web sites for tech and games groups like CNET, Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft and G4 and follow their live blogging from the conference. But all those tabs can get annoying — reloading all of them every few minutes.

Twitter lets you subscribe to each E3 blogger’s feed and see it all in one place. You only have to follow one Web page. As the updates roll in, they show up in your Twitter feed.

I think that the benefits of live blogging through Twitter go beyond the viewers, though. The bloggers themselves are also benefiting. It’s not that different from what they were doing, but the character limit I think encourages them to get the info out more concisely. And as a result, it might also be encouraging them to update more often to clarify the details. The conciseness and more frequent edits will help the quality of their live blogging.

Twitter also gives them more outlets to get the info out. Users can post from their personal Twitter site, a Twitter-posting application, Wi-Fi-connected devices, their Jesus Phone, or regular cell phone. So while e32008 published through the Twhirl program, Veronica Belmont did so through text message, and I imagine someone else did so through the site itself.

So by putting everything in one place, encouraging conciseness and more posts, and providing multiple manners of getting info out, Twitter has proven that it is the ultimate tool for live blogging in my eyes.

The biggest thing for me is the conciseness. As much as I love science, I can’t read an entire story about most scientific things. Luckily, I get all the info I need about what’s going on with NASA’s Mars Phoenix Lander through its Twitter account. And if it can keep my attention for something like that, imagine what it could do for people live blogging from, say the Lawrence City Council meeting. Although it can’t spice up the meeting or anyone’s writing at other Lawrence papers, at least it would come in bits that don’t require my full attention.

Twitter isn’t the solution for every Web idea though, last month an Obama and McCain rep tried to hold a debate through Twitter. The bath-and-forth was garbled by way too many abbreviations and text-message speak.

By the way, don’t forget to get updates on the latest University Daily Kansan stories by following them on Twitter. The address is http://twitter.com/thekansan.