Well, obviously everywhere.  There is no surprise here that the crossover continues to move at an incredible pace.  Everyday we see a few more marketers find a place for Twitter in their marketing mix, even if there is no real strategic approach to using the platform to further their objectives.

For top brand marketers to small businesses to celebrities, twitter continues to provide a new outlet for communication.

At the end of the day, the real-time web’s social element is the key motivating factor for use.  Move aside the early adopting tech heads who compare sizes of their iPod application centers and you find the highest form of social communication: gossip!    Straight, simple, irrelevant and highly entertaining celebrity gossip!

Twitter the personal celebrity PR Agency – for a few seconds a day

I admit that in my most private moments, my eyes drift over to the wife’s recent copy of Us Weekly to check out what’s happening with my favorite stars. (I really did not say that and don’t tell her).  What caught my eye was how adopted Twitter has become in mainstream media.  The feature was “Trend Alert! Stars Who twitter”, and although celebrities have been rifling out their “tweets” for a while now, it looks like it has found a home for exposure in one of the top gossip weeklies.

John Mayer twitter and other celebrities

Celebrities like John Mayer: twitter.com/johncmayer, Tina Fey: twitter.com/tinafey, Britney: twitter/britneyspears and Demi: twitter.com/mrskutcher all got highlights in Us Weekly to further their gossip brand with quoted “tweets” that readers gobble up.

Twitter provides a real point of personal engagement for celebrities with their fans.  It also allows them to reinvigorate their brands by keeping them young, relevant and youthful, yes Demi…you’re always 25 to me.

Celebrities can also use their “tweets” to misguide, manage spin and create controversy just like their PR agencies are challenged to do.  Most importantly the real-time web allows them to respond to the trends and stem rumors before they get out of hand.  PR in a few seconds can go a long way for both sides of the rumor mill.

Brand Gossip is just not as fun on twitter

Just like celebrities, Marketers need to figure out how to make it work for their brands. The reality is that brands with raving fans like John Mayer are going to have a much easier time attracting and keeping a following. Marketers for less popular brands need to think outside the box to tap into some unique content or gossip of relevance, or create new ways to capitalize on the real-time web.

Path has had some success adopting twitter for clients and we will highlight a few of these in coming posts.

What marketers do you think are doing it right?  Wrong?  Share your thoughts and let us know.

Michael Coppola is Founder & CEO at Path Interactive, a NYC-based search engine marketing firm.

On Our 2009 Watch List: New Generic Domain Names

Earlier this year, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ( ICANN)  announced a plan to allow new generic level domain names (gTLDs) in addition to current ones like .com, .org, .edu, etc.  Under the plan, gTLDs would be virtually unlimited.  For instance, Ford could be not only ford.com, but also ford.cars, ford.auto, ford.road, ford.ford, etc.

ICANN states that “the expansion will allow for more innovation, choice and change to the Internet’s addressing system, now constrained by only 21 generic top-level domain names,” and considers this program to be especially important to its efforts to make domain names available that could contain non-ASCII characters or letters (for instance, Arabic or Chinese).

Generic Domain Name’s Don’t sit Well with Goverments and Large Corporations

There is significant opposition to the plan, especially from corporations and governments.  The opposing arguments mostly center around two issues: the potentially enormous additional cost to companies that wish to defend their trademarks and brand names, and the possibility that adding hundreds or thousands of new gTLDs could undermine the stability and security of the Domain Name System (DNS).

The Effect On Large Companies Can Cost

Large companies already have to buy thousands (sometimes tens of thousands) of domain names to protect their brands – buying not only their trademarked names, but also common misspellings across all 21 current gTLDs.  For instance, Google owns not just google.com, but also g00gle.com and google.biz.   Depending on the number of new domain names, the price companies pay to control domain names could definitely skyrocket.

So, How Many New gTLDs Will There Be?

No one can predict how many new domain names will pop up because it won’t be cheap to register a new gTLD.  Companies wishing to register new gTLDs will need to pay $185,000 to submit the application and $60,000 each year to run the domain.  In addition, if a company is not already a registry, it will have to pay $50,000 to be evaluated.  In other words, a company will need to be sure that there will be a lot of customers in order to apply for a generic domain.  That said, the way to make a fortune is to see opportunity where others don’t, so don’t be surprised if some surprises pop up like .crafts, .florist, or .pizza.

Next week: the proposal’s possible effects on search engine marketing.

James Connell is Search Director at Path Interactive, a NYC-based interactive marketing firm.