Evan Williams, chief executive officer and co-founder of Twitter, promoted its growing usefulness in a keynote address Oct. 2 at the Online News Association conference held at the Hilton San Francisco. Besides speaking about Twitter’s success since its creation in March 2006, Williams also took the opportunity to talk about the direction that Twitter is taking in the future, including the ability to send out your location as part of your Tweet.

In a 70-minute interview with Susan Mernit, co-founder of People’s Software Company, Williams spoke about the evolution of Twitter from a social networking tool to a news and business utility. He said that he hopes to ”improve the product and technology so it becomes more useful in people’s daily lives,” as well as expand its ability as a research tool.

Twitter has often been criticized for relaying too much information, including minor, mundane details in answer to its signature prompt, “what are you doing?”

Williams acknowledged that “what you had for breakfast” isn’t necessarily interesting to everyone, and he said that he and the other 84 members who make up Twitter’s staff are working on “sifting out the signal from all the noise.”

But changing perceptions may be difficult. During Williams’ appearance, one reporter stood up and asked how Williams deals with those who think that “Twitter is so ridiculous.”

“Why do people think anyone cares what they are doing, anyways?” asked the reporter.

“I don’t know,” said Williams, provoking laughter from the audience. “We should have a better reason for why people care … we don’t, but they do anyway.”

Teens especially seem to be skeptical of Twitter. People between the ages of 12 and 17 are the most reluctant to accept Twitter, according to a study done by comScore Media Matrix. Teens accounted for 10 percent of Twitter users, while people aged 35 to 54 comprised nearly 80 percent of users.

At Urban, it is difficult to find someone who tweets regularly.

“What’s the point?” asked senior Manny Garber. “It’s such a waste of time.”

Bobby Thornton, a junior, said that Twitter’s status box “is just a version of Facebook,” which research indicates is much more popular with teens than Twitter

Senior James Stack uses Twitter to keep up with the music scene. “It’s cool to see what musicians are up to,” says Stack. “It’s a good way to be a fan, and to stay updated”.

But for most, Twitter is a tough sell. Twitter “is like standing in a crowd and saying ‘hey, I just ate breakfast for dinner,’” says junior Walker Hendrickson. ”The people around you hear you and are, like, ‘cool,’ but no one else hears … or they don’t care.”

While acknowledging the criticism, Williams emphasized that Twitter is not only about who you know, but what you don’t know.

“It’s not just creating and telling the world what we’re doing, but what we can find out there,” said Williams, adding that “at this point, there is something on Twitter that everyone cares about.”

At the conference, Williams said that the future of Twitter lies in “build[ing] authenticity and trust into the system”. This trust may be able to bring in more reliable Tweets, but it still may be a challenge to convince America’s youth to join the commotion.