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Twitter may be shiny and new, but its finances are reminiscent of the dark age of the dot-com bust. With no revenue or business plan, Twitter is still subsisting on investor capital. Before you think that Twitter is going the way of the web-based dodo, note that VC firms Benchmark Capital and IVP recently pumped $35 million into Twitter and Facebook bid $500 million of its stock for Twitter, reflecting rock solid investor confidence.

So confident is Twitter of its future that it organized its inaugural Shorty Awards in New York recently, honouring remarkable twitterers in categories as varied as food and videogames. People are finding remarkable uses for Twitter beyond its already amazing social value, including controlling home appliances and monitoring your home’s security. There is an excellent chance that some of these uses will ultimately become profitable. Even without these alternative uses, Twitter is already generating ad revenue in Japan, and getting fans from the American Congress and Israeli Consulate. Will we see Twitter bidding for government contracts to disseminate information in the future? Don’t bet against it.