New York is supposed to teach those West Coast web hippies some business sense. So what does Union Square Ventures investment in Twitter mean? Has New York gone soft or is there really a business there?

Paul Kedrosky at Infectious Greed already draws the lesson that business plans are overrated. It sounds dangerously 1999.

I’m still not convinced Twitter is something. I can see how it plays a role in the social wars of tens and tweens to establish themselves and hook up or whatever it is you crazy kids do these days. For me it’s a waste of time.

Technically Twitter is an extension of text messaging and blogs. It should be possible to come up with more interesting extensions, mash-ups and variations of those technologies. Twitter fans will always claim Twitter lead the way, but anyone can do it.

Everybody is already copying Twitter’s model – Jaiku, Dukudu, even Bebo. Twitter’s got the brand, but how much is that worth? Anyone remember Friendster? Even MySpace is heading towards oblivion at the moment.

Jumping on a bandwagon usually pays off and Union Square Ventures probably knows what they’re doing. But I don’t get a warm and fuzzy feeling from Twitter’s good fortune. We’re in a new phase where hype again counts for more than substance.