knowing Twitter, Tweets & Micro Blogs

Just heard a lot about twitter & made an account in it. Enjoyed it. It's a good way to tell your friends & others; in real time; what you are currently into.

click on this image to view my twitter profile

What is twitter ?
Twitter is a free social networking and notably most used micro blogging service. It was launched in July 2006 and won the Web Award in the blog category at the 2007 South by Southwest Conference in Austin, Texas.

twitter logo

As per Alexa's calculation it's current web rank is 27 in terms of web traffic.

twitter bird logo often seen around the website

User's updates (micro blogs) are called "tweets". Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters, displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to other users - known as followers - who have subscribed to them. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or external applications. The service is free over the Internet, but using SMS may incur phone service provider fees.

It is sometimes described as the "SMS of the Internet".

What is Micro blogging ?
Micro blogging is a form of multimedia blogging that allows users to send brief text updates or micromedia such as photos or audio clips and publish them, either to be viewed by anyone or by a restricted group which can be chosen by the user. These messages can be submitted by a variety of means, including text messaging, instant messaging, email, digital audio or the web. The content of a micro-blog differs from a traditional blog in that it is typically smaller in actual size and aggregate file size. A single entry could consist of a single sentence or fragment or an image or a brief, ten second video. But, still, its purpose is similar to that of a traditional blog.

Users micro-blog about particular topics that can range from the simple, such as "what one is doing at a given moment," to the thematic, such as "sports cars," to business topics, such as particular products. Many micro-blogs provide short commentary on a person-to-person level, share news about a company's products and services, or provide logs of the events of one's life. The findings of a study by Emily Pronin of Princeton University and Harvard University's Daniel Wegner, pointing to a link between the short bursts of activity that microblogging frequently involves and feelings of elation, power and creativity, have been cited as a possible reason for the rapid growth of microblogging.