Thanks to Twitter, consumers are now posting messages about what they want, what they’re craving, where they are going, what they do, who they’re going to see, what events they’re attending – and more. The list goes on – and as a result, marketers are bathing in a sea of consumer data glory.

The fact is, consumers are now helping target and segment themselves. The next step is to create the tools to help expedite and aggregate this process. With Twitter search tools becoming more and more advanced, it’s only a matter of time.

With Earth Day just around the corner, the environment is now on everybody’s minds. Including the corporate minds.

I have a challenge: I challenge you, the corporations, to do something for the environment this year in the spirit of Earth Day without telling anyone about it. That’s right, no commercials, no press releases, no newspaper ads, nothing.

Recognition comes when recognition is deserved. Telling people about what your doing is fundamentally less profound than telling people what’s been done.

This sends an underlying message about corporate social responsibility. We, as consumers, are now desensitized to “green” messages. We will not buy your product more just because you’ve told us you’re doing green things.

We will, however, buy your product if doing so makes a meaningful, positive impact onto the environment. Show us the trees you claim to plant. Show us the tons and tons of carbon emissions you have already eliminated, and also tell us how much money you’ve made off of that. That means you Apple: using less packaging has made you save money on packaging. I want to know how much you’ve saved. I also want to know how much of the environment you’ve saved as well. It’s time to take a different stance. Corporations deserve the money they’ve saved by being truly green. The message and the means aren’t all we’re after: it’s the ends as well.

I’m going to be incredibly uncreative and call it the “web ceiling”.

What I mean by this is as active, connected users, we have a group of useful tools that we regularly use. And yes, the companies that provide these tools will and can become massive in size and very successful. I’m talking about the Facebooks, the Twitters (now), and the Googles. There is, however, a limit to the amount of these regular tools that we use: a ceiling.

There is not enough attention and time available in our busy lives to devote to another jesus-tool. The switching costs increase every day we use these things, because we are building our lives around it. Younger people will attest to this. And yes, I will probably never stop using Google as my main tool for e-mail and search, but hey, never say never.

In any case, I believe that the big question now should not be, who is going to be the next Twitter? – we should instead be asking: how can we, as unique individuals, find the next niche tools that we can use for our specific situations? I call it micro-niching; and similar to Seth Godin’s “tribe” concept: this is now related to product development and marketing.

As we micro-niche, we build a concept of how a company can create multiple micro-niches of a similar theme but utilize the technology available today to customize tools to a situation.

For instance, as an entrepreneur, a business owner, a graphic designer, a hockey player, and an addicted traveler: what tool can bring all my services together in a meaningful, semantic way, and what product will not just simply add to my already full roster of “regular” large and bulky tools, but can be nimble and evolving with my needs?

Just a thought.

I apologize that this has been my only update in the past few weeks, but I’d like to share a new term with the twittersphere: Fweet.

That’s right, tweet + fart. Inspired by the tweeting fart chair. I could’ve gone with twart, but I think fweet has more onomatopoeic sentiments.

Please feel free to retweet this if you ever feel like fweeting. Or you could refweet it.