Convergence: Mark Zuckerberg is on Twitter

While reading my blog feeds over coffee this morning, I read on VentureBeat that Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO, created a public account on Twitter.

After reading the article, I checked out his account and followed him.  Within minutes, he followed me and several hundred people back.

You may have seen the recent Charlie Rose interview with Eric Schmidt, Google CEO where he said that Twitter was a “poor man’s email system” and they are unlikely to buy Twitter soon. Well, Eric Schmidt has a Twitter account (although it’s validity is questionable) as does the fast growing corporate Google account (83,000 followers).

So why are all these “suitors” on Twitter?  Are they kicking the tires or has Twitter become a very necessary utility for all? Perhaps we are seeing this convergence where these social utilities are all being recognized as useful by each other (regardless of what they say publicly) and the networks are thus, symbiotic?  And if that’s the case, will you soon be able to log in to Twitter with Facebook Connect or your Google ID?  Aside from the ability to post your status to multiple places, what would be other benefits of integration?

And if the convergence is truly happening, where are Steve Ballmer, Reid Hoffman, Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe? What does it say about their companies, if they are not active on Twitter?