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Twitter is a useful tool on its own but by design, it remains extremely simple, even stark, in its functionality. The folks who created it wanted to make Twitter a platform for users to build on, improve and enhance, so they opened up application program interface, or code, to the public.

Enterprising and creative software developers, as a result, can create applications that work with Twitter to offer even more compelling features and ways to make use of the dynamic system.

Twitter itself is constantly evolving and changing — from design facelifts to new features to changes in how the back-end technology works. The Twitter team pays close attention to how people interact with the system and what those users want to do with it.

The long-term success of Twitter depends completely on a healthy base of users generating a regular stream of content.

As a result, Twitter is a living application and community, extending far beyond what Twitter itself controls. Conventions and third-party tools have popped up to fill in functionality that Twitter may have missed, chosen not to implement or intentionally left for other developers to handle.

You can find a rich toolset online to enhance and personalise your own Twitter experience. With so many conversations going on every day on Twitter, how can you manage to find the ones that are relevant to you?

You can search Twitter many, many ways but here are three noteworthy things for you to know: 
 
-Twitter Search (formerly called Summize and now finally integrated right into the pages at Twitter.com)

-TweetDeck and TwitScoop

-Hashtags

Twitter Search

Summize, a powerful search engine that trawls through the enormous volume of public tweets in real time, emerged last year and soon became the go-to tool for searching Twitter.

The powers that be at Twitter noticed. Seeing the value in Summize's application, Twitter acquired Summize and began a slow process of incorporating it into Twitter itself, renaming it Twitter Search.

So although the Summize name is a thing of the past, Twitter Search is a powerful and important part of the Twitter experience.

Earlier this year, Twitter formally rolled out its search functionality displayed right on Twitter.com with the rest of your account. Twitter Search isn't static: It keeps searching for your query, even after you click the Search button.

When Twitter Search finds a new search result, a link appears at the top of your Twitter Search results telling you how many new matches for your search term have appeared since you last hit the Refresh button. This may not seem like a big deal but it's extremely useful when news is breaking or you're following a live event.

Just click a trending topic to see what we mean. Search as embedded into Twitter.com is static. You have to hit Refresh to see new results.

TwitScoop

Time and again during news events (earthquakes, wildfires, politics, accidents, deaths), as an extension of popular culture (TV shows, sports, movies, celebrities, fashion) and for emerging information of any kind, Twitter shines as a powerful way to find out what's going on in almost real time.

TwitScoop (twitscoop.com) is one of many applications that displays what trends are rising and falling. TwitScoop does this both as a website and as a feature built into popular Twitter client TweetDeck (tweetdeck.com).

Built into TweetDeck, TwitScoop helps you track keywords and trending topics, which can be really useful and is mandatory if you're using Twitter to keep tabs on your brand.

Access TwitScoop by clicking the button with the small bird icon in the TweetDeck toolbar (a row of icons along the top left of the application). A new TweetDeck column dedicated to trending topics and the information related to them loads.

On the main website that is behind the TweetDeck application, you'll find trending topic and keyword tracking in a browser interface. From the TwitScoop home page, you can see tags, tag clouds, popular hashtags and other words that are trending on Twitter.

You can also use a handful of widgets to embed a list of trending topics on your website or blog.

Hashtags

Hashtags have become a part of the culture on Twitter for many avid users. Basically, hashtags are a way to delineate a keyword for other Twitter users to organise discussions around specific topics and events.

Originally, the website (hashtags.org) automatically tracked and displayed these hashtags. But Twitter occasionally turns off the portion of its application program interface (API) that hashtags.org uses, so you can't always search it reliably.

Not all Twitter users like hashtags: some users think that hashtags make the Twitter stream clunky.

Admittedly, seeing tweet after tweet go by containing hashtags, such as #GNO, #TCOT, #journchat and other codes, can seem noisy and disjointed if you don't follow or understand them. You can always unfollow a heavy hashtag user if it really bothers you but don't hit the trigger too quickly: you can probably get used to hashtags, along with the rest of Twitter's quirks, before too long.

The ability to tag tweets is extremely powerful. It's something people are just starting to figure out and they have a very interesting future. As a concept, hashtags make it possible to quickly filter tweets by topic, event or other content by using an easy abbreviation that doesn't take up too many of a tweet's 140 characters.

People at the same event or meeting, or who are discussing the same topic, can use the same hashtag. Later on, if you want to review the information related to that event or topic, you can simply search for the hashtag on Twitter Search to find all tweets that reference the same code.

Sure, you can search by keyword but the # in a hashtag is a signal for others that it is the keyword to use so that they can easily find, read and share all tweets for a certain topic or event. What that means is a hashtag that catches on forms an instant community around it. Most of these communities are short-lived.

Others become ongoing conversations, recurring real-time events or even entire movements.

Here are some tips for creating an effective hashtag:

- If you want to avoid confusion, check Twitter Search for the hashtag that you want to use to make sure someone else hasn't already claimed it. For example, people use the popular #wishlist hashtag for everything from software feature wish lists to requests for birthday presents, so searching for it brings up a cluttered stream.

- Make sure everyone at your event or discussing your topic is aware of the proper hashtag in advance. After you choose your hashtag, make a note of it on your event page or blog post — or, of course, by tweeting it out — so that people responding to it can use the same one.

Client software

Many Twitter clients for your Mac or PC take the form of a software download that you install and run from the desktop. Most of these clients are based on a programming standard called Adobe Air.

Adobe Air doesn't come preinstalled on your computer, so if you don't have it already, you'll be instructed to install it when you download a Twitter desktop client. Adobe Air is a free program; so, in fact, are many of the Twitter clients.

Anybody with a decent amount of programming know-how can create a Twitter client but here are a few that stand out from the crowd because they're particularly easy to use and offer the features that most Twitter users want:

- Twhirl (twhirl.org): Based on Adobe Air, you can install Twhirl on any computer that runs a Mac, Windows or Linux operating system. It has a slim, attractive and unobtrusive window interface, which many avid Twitter users like. Importantly, Twhirl can switch back and forth between multiple Twitter accounts, which is handy for those users who keep separate personal and professional ones or who run Twitter accounts for clients.

It also works with several social-networking services, such as aggregator FriendFeed, open-source microblogging application Identi.ca and video-chat company Seesmic (which owns Twhirl), so you can use many of your social tools in one place. The interface is semi-customisable, fairly easy to get the hang of and currently free to use.

Recently, Seesmic rolled out a beta version of its Twhirl replacement: Seesmic Desktop. The new client offers many new features, an easier way to work with multiple Twitter accounts and can subscribe to Facebook contents.

- TweetDeck (tweetdeck .com): This free Twitter client, based on Adobe Air, is compatible with Mac, Windows or Linux systems, just like Twhirl. If Twhirl isn't hardcore enough for you, you're in luck — TweetDeck is for the power Twitter user.

The main selling points of TweetDeck are the ability to form specific groups of your contacts, integrated Twitter search and multiple-column interface. Beyond that, you'll find many of the same features as on Twhirl, including the ability to get content from more than one social network (Facebook, for example).

TweetDeck is almost too functional for some casual Twitter users but if you use Twitter frequently, you can't easily beat seeing trending topics in a column or performing a detailed Twitter search right from your desktop. TweetDeck and Twhirl increasingly vie for the top spot as most popular desktop Twitter clients but it's worth noting that about half of Twitter use seems to happen right at Twitter.com.

- Spaz (funkatron.com/spaz): A newer Twitter desktop client. It's an Adobe Air app that offers many of the same features that Twhirl and TweetDeck do but Spaz has added bonuses. You can customise Spaz by applying what techies call skins, frequently by using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).

Skins change the look and feel of the application. Creating and sharing custom skins is a popular thing for programmers to do. Don't worry too much about what this means to you; it just means more choices and options if you want them.

- Twitterrific (twitterrific.com): A Twitter client made for the Mac OS X desktop operating system, with mobile versions for Apple's iPhone or iPod Touch available at the iTunes App Store.

Twitterrific is shareware: you can download a free version but if you choose to support the developers by purchasing the application, you'll avoid the ads on the regular version and it costs less than $US15 ($18.25). But unlike many other Twitter clients, you can't track other social networks within its interface.

- Digsby (digsby.com): A Windows-only desktop client that combines many instant-messaging, email and social-networking accounts in addition to Twitter — Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, AIM and Yahoo!, to name a few.

The most basic way to use Twitter on a mobile phone, smartphone or PDA is by text messaging (SMS). You simply have to add your mobile device to your Twitter profile, sending tweets to the code and consequently having them associated with your username if you enable Phone as a delivery option on your Home screen sidebar.

You can also receive them on your phone. However, getting so many text messages can be expensive if you don't subscribe to an unlimited texting plan. Because SMS also costs Twitter money, Twitter might eliminate the SMS service in the future to cut costs or begin charging for SMSs to offset those costs.

To prepare yourself for that possible situation, you may want to invest in a mobile Twitter client.

This is an edited excerpt of Twitter for Dummies, by Laura Fitton, published by John Wiley & Sons Australia Ltd, available this month, RRP $37.95.