Wimpy Internet technology cannot contain Pete Carroll

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Did Pete Carroll break Twitter?

Not quite, but he did push the online messaging service to its technological and practical limits in a ‘twitterview’ with Fox reporter Lisa Horne. The session boiled down to nine Q&A’s, each limited to 140 characters.

Amused teenagers and twentysomethings have followed Carroll’s efforts to enlist Will Ferrell on the site, but his latest endeavor was a bit confusing -- even to a technophile like myself.

Readers could follow each side of the conversation -- individually -- on the separate feeds for Carroll and Horne. Combining the two into a discernible dialogue wasn’t so easy, as users would have to subscribe to both feeds and change their default setting to show ‘all @ replies’ (not practical if you’re already following a lot of people).

The whole thing was later compiled on FoxSports.com.

It wasn’t a Walter Cronkite moment (actually, Katie Couric panned the service during the Walter Cronkite Awards at USC last week), but it was pretty funny. Carroll’s hyperactive personality came across as he teased Horne for taking too long with her questions and told a student (messaging in the middle of a psych class) to ‘start drawing pictures of the professor.’

-- Adam Rose