Jasonified.

Twitter is rolling out it’s brand new “killer” function, Twitter Lists. Essentially it allows you to group the people you follow into multiple lists which you can keep private or share for public consumption. If you chose to share your lists then others can click a single button and follow everyone in that list.

Neat hey?

Maybe but what’s really interesting about lists is that they don’t just work with the people you follow but *anyone* whether you’re following them or not.

This means you now have the ability to create multiple timelines that include people you are interested in whether it’s work, play, family, friends, business, news etc.

This could effectively render your default timeline defunct and you just tune into your various “channels”.

If you chose to make a list public, anyone you “follow” in this way can still see they are “listed” in a particular public list of yours, which is essentially just like being followed.

In Fact with sites like http://listorious.com/ featuring good lists to follow why not just bookmark peoples recommended lists instead of following them?

The only difference I can see with following is the rules that govern how @ replies are viewable to others and the ability to direct message someone.

Other than that it *seems* at first glance that Twitter lists could eventually make the traditional method of following/being followed obsolete and a new number will be chased, that of being “listed”

Thoughts?