As you may have read, after much head-scratching about just what it’s actually supposed to do, PC Pro has bitten the bullet and joined Twitter. With the whole team contributing I’m sure it’ll work well, but on an individual level I’m just not a fan – I’ve tried it for a bit with my own personal account and found it a bit, well, pointless.

But then I was told about Cursebird. Built by a web developer who saw a few of his friends cursing on Twitter and realised he was finding it unfeasibly funny, Cursebird was quickly born with one very particular purpose: like Twitter’s disowned step-brother, it exists to bring you only those Tweets containing swearing.

WARNING: THIS LINK IS PROBABLY BEST AVOIDED IF YOU DON’T FIND RUDE WORDS FUNNY…

Visit Cursebird: What the f#@! is everyone swearing about?

Yes, Cursebird is just as pointless as the rest of Twitter, but at least it’s funny (if you’re as childish as me). Reading a constant stream of ripe comments from strangers all over the world is far more addictive and entertaining than discovering that one of my friends has just put his leftovers into Tupperware for lunch tomorrow.

Best of all is that you don’t actually have to join Twitter to use Cursebird, and the accompanying stats add to the laughs: find out where you rank in the swearing hall of fame, and see a live seven-day overview of the most used swear words with weekly risers and fallers.

Whether you find that sort of thing amusing or not, it’s all possible because, like many social networking services, Twitter allows you to play around with the API. Cursebird initially took just a few hours to put together, which shows how easily you can turn these services into a niche spin-off for any imaginable purpose. There’s an interview with the creator here, in which he reveals just how instantly successful Cursebird became, and how he’s now working for Call of Duty developer Infinity Ward on a Twitter-related project. Fair play to him, if he can make Twitter interesting he deserves every success he gets.