Twittering isn’t just about giving Congressmen something to do with their hands while the President is giving the State of the Union speech.
It’s also a good way of finding out how hot you are.
Hundreds of thousands of users follow daily updates from movie and sports stars, politicos, the media and even companies like Starbucks and JetBlue. Even the Dalai Lama gives out inspirational quotes, though who can tell if that one’s for real.
Who’s tops on the list of most-followed Twitterers?
Twitterholic.com, a site specializing all things tweet, knows. And the results are, in some cases, surprisingly heartening. CNN (369,331 followers) and Barack Obama (358,598) beat out fourth-ranked Britney Spears (a mere 274,655).
But Shaq is a dedicated twitterer. Here are some of his 140-character words of wisdom for those in constant need of a Shaq update: "At firehouse subs, dat turkey on wheat wit extra mayo is gooder dan a mug, lol."
And the previous day, March 2: "This is for da shaq correctors, its cold den a mug down hizear cuzn n orlizzo flizzo Translate dat tuff guy lol"
Shaq’s up there at number 8. Al Gore is 9. Purely on the basis of having starred in an old “Star Trek” TV series, geek icon Wil Wheaton clocks in at 18 — and Hammer (formerly MC Hammer), despite no career whatsoever, makes it all the way up to number 34.
Even John McCain is twittering. Here’s a guy who didn’t use to use email. Maybe he still doesn’t. He barely beats out former “Dancing With the Stars” celeb Brook Burke and magician Penn Jillette – who, to be honest, we’d have placed a lot higher.
