My vote for Best Mainstream & Large Scale Social Network is easy: Twitter.

Of the other nominated sites, I also use: Facebook, FriendFeed, MySpace (I have to, they make me), and Squidoo, but Twitter is the only one I use everyday, continuously akin to a junkie with heroine. I cannot stop! I have tried, but I just can't.

I have tried the alternatives:

Plurk was too gimmicky.

Jaiku was too complex and no fun.

Pownce made me fear the wrath of the RIAA (Mike makes a good argument for it though)

Indenti.ca didn't have the community I wanted.

So every time I left, I had to crawl back to Twitter. Twitter has developed a community that is unmatched for their resourcefulness and willingness to lend a hand.

Whenever there is an event, I just load up Twitter (like I turn it off) and join in the conversation. It is fun, and easy. The 140 character limit keeps it readable. As my number of followers grow and the number I follow, the brevity becomes an asset.

The apps make Twitter work.

• Twirl for posting and reading.

• TweetDeck for tracking opinion.

• Twellow for finding people.

• Twitterific for mobile tweeting.

I highly recommend that you give twitter a try and vote for it in the Open Web Awards. While you are there, follow me :)