I’m inexcusably late to this meme, but here are my wishes for Twitter improvements in 2008. (Jeremiah and Garrick have already crafted great posts about this topic.)

1.) Let me track conversations.

Today, Chris Brogan asked his Twitter friends if private social networks would be big in 2008.
I want a page that shows me that original tweet, plus all the public responses packaged together in a nice little threaded discussion. Right now we can track individual users, “@responses” to users, and keywords, but not conversations. Somebody please build/hack this.

2.) Let me discover more friends nearby.

Twitter has allowed me to make connections that likely never would have materialized in meatspace. Help me make more, relevant to the zip code I’m currently in. I don’t wish for Twitter to become a “friend-finder” social network, but some slightly-improved location search tools would be nice. At the end of the day, I’m still in charge of who I friend/follow.

3.) Let me broadcast in new spaces.

Imagine a Twitter / bumper sticker mash-up! I’d love to have my Twitter stream scrolling across my bumper or back windshield for everyone to see. Or my office window. What about wearable Twitter? Somebody could easily mod the Scrolling LED Belt Buckle and solder on a Wi-Fi antenna to accomplish this.

4.) Build Twitter micro-networks into airplanes.

These would be specific only to the plane and its passengers: a real-time, Twittervision-style display on a digital screen built into the seat-backs, letting passengers share who they are, where they’re going, and why. Yes! This is awesome, somebody get on this immediately.

5.) Don’t ever get too big.

I hope that Twitter stays light, fluffy and resistant to mainstream appeal.

How do you want Twitter to evolve in 2008?