Steve Ballmer has seen the future, and it's Twitter. Microsoft's CEO seemed far more excited by the microblogging startup than any of the offerings from his company during a three-and-a-half minute discussion with the BBC about coming technology.

You can watch the full video at the BBC, or view just the Twitter highlight above. If Ballmer's enthusiastic little Twitter story seems imprudent for an executive who is trying to make competing technology, just remember that it's probably the least lethal of Microsoft's big-name competitors. Unlike multi-billion-dollar competitors Apple and Google, or even $500 million+ Facebook, Twitter still counts its revenue in the tens of millions of dollars. How cute.