By Pratik Joshi, Tri City Herald staff writer

Richland's Joe Langevin is trying to take Twitter to a new level.
The ultra popular microblogging and social networking service that allows people to send out short messages generates mounds of information. And the 2008 Richland High grad plans to help marketers and consumers make sense of it by customizing the data in simple categories. His idea is to sort the content of individuals' tweets as quickly as people send out the messages. So users can quickly find topics and reactions they're specifically looking for.

Langevin, 19, recently presented his ideas at the TechCrunch50 conference in San Francisco to industry experts and potential investors. He was one of the youngest of the 50 participants selected from about 1,000 companies in 40 countries. Since then, a lot of people and companies have been talking to him and about his company, insttant.com, he said. The site that he's developing analyzes users' tweets, the sites they link to, and their interests, and gives quick summaries, he said. "I've got a lot of positive feedback," he said.

He said Superpages, an online business directory, wants to integrate his site with its local business directories, and Newsweek magazine might be interested in using it to tabulate popular reactions to its web content. "We are still talking," he said.  He's still working on his website with the help of programmers, some of them based abroad. It's about 80 percent done, said Langevin, who's studying electrical engineering at Washington State University in Pullman.

"I got tired of making people money off my sites," said Langevin, who owns several websites including hacknmod.com, a place to find cool gadgets and tips for those interested in electronics and circuitry. "I made my first website in eighth grade and sold it for $400," he said.

"I want to make money for myself," he said. He has invested the money he generates from his websites into the new venture.  The teenage entrepreneur got the idea several months ago while following the race between actor Ashton Kutcher and CNN to see who could reach 1 million Twitter followers first.  Langevin said he thought people won't have to rely on mass media if someone can make sense of all the tweets instantly.

"His success doesn't surprise me," said Renee DeBuigne, his math teacher at Richland High. Langevin took honors precalculus and beginning and advanced computer science classes from her. He had a knack for computers, and often used his "fantastic imagination" to come up with solutions, DeBuigne said.

He's not a kid you envision working in an office like most others, she said. He's a people person and he's innovative.