Twitter is the online Mecca for “Did I need to know that?” information about your cyber-neighbors. Everything from what people ate for breakfast to daily conversations are recorded on the social site, making a seemingly colossal stew of useless information.

Not so for product manufacturers. According to The New York Times article “Putting Twitter’s World to Use,” companies like Dell, Whole Foods, and Starbucks use Twitter to research what customers think about their products.

Twitter can even be used to make a social statement. Protestors in Moldova used Twitter in April 2009 to rally fellow protestors. Outsiders of the country looked-on via Twitter to understand the conflict arising.

As Twitter grows, it faces the problem of receiving proper compensation for its services. It is considering developing a plan for charging companies like Starbucks for information regarding its customers and its products. 

These breaks, defined by the study as “workplace Internet leisure browsing” (WILB), have helped employees become a reported 9 percent more productive versus their coworkers not participating in WILB. 

Study author Brent Coker notes, “People need to zone out for a bit to get back their concentration,” on the university’s website (www.unimelb.edu.au/).