Tech Heads Flock to SXSW In Search of Next Big Thing

The Austin music festival is teeming with memes.

South By South West is known to indie music fans as the place to find the hottest new buzz band, but for tech experts it’s renowned as a springboard for web sensations. Twitter and Foursquare both shot to prominence at the festival’s tech conference, and ahead of opening day Friday buses loaded with gadgets and gizmos were headed to Austin from all over the country. New technology expected to be hot this year includes group text messaging, which allows users to create text-based chatrooms based on their topics of interests. The conference has become so well-known as a trendsetting gathering that major players like RIM and Apple attend. Microsoft will launch its Explorer 9 browser at a SXSW party Monday.