In her latest column, New York Times op-ed writer Maureen Dowd takes a look at Twitter. Dowd traveled to San Francisco to interview Evan Williams and Biz Stone, the inventors of the popular microblogging service. Dowd told the Twitter team that she: "would rather be tied up to stakes in the Kalahari Desert, have honey poured over me and red ants eat out my eyes than open a Twitter account."

Interestingly, there's a
Twitter account purporting to be from Dowd that has over 5,000 followers. Peter Kafka All Things Digital speculates that the page is probably maintained by either a "well-meaning fan" or a member of the Times' staff.

Dowd may not understand Twitter's appeal, but the site is clearly catching on with the rest of the country. According to ReadWriteWeb.com, after daytime TV talk queen Oprah Winfrey joined Twitter last week the site's overall share of US internet users increased by 24 percent.