Twitter

Twitter A definition from Wikipedia - The 140-character limit on message length was initially set for compatibility with SMS messaging, and has brought to the web the kind of [|shorthand] notation and [|slang] commonly used in SMS messages. The 140 character limit has also spurred the usage of [|URL shortening] services such as tinyurl, bit.ly and tr.im, and content hosting services, such as [|Twitpic] and [|NotePub] to accommodate [|multimedia] content and text longer than 140 characters. Since its creation in 2006 by [|Jack Dorsey], Twitter has gained notability and popularity worldwide. It is sometimes described as the "SMS of the [|Internet]"[|[3]] since the use of Twitter's [|application programming interface] for sending and receiving short [|text messages] by other applications often eclipses the direct use of Twitter.
 * Twitter** is a free [|social networking] and [|micro-blogging] service that enables its users to send and read messages known as //tweets//. Tweets are [|text-based] posts of up to 140 [|characters] displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as //followers//. 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. While the service itself costs nothing to use, accessing it through SMS may incur [|phone service provider] fees.

What we have to do is deliver to people the best and freshest most relevant information possible. We think of Twitter as it's not a social network, but it's an information network. It tells people what they care about as it is happening in the world.—[|Evan Williams] [|[4]] Twitter emphasized their news and information network strategy in November 2009 by changing the question it asks users for status updates from "What are you doing?" to "What's happening?".[|[5]][|[6]] Twitter is ranked as one of the 50 most popular websites worldwide by [|Alexa's] [|web traffic] analysis.[|[7]] Although estimates of the number of daily users vary because the company does not release the number of active accounts, a February 2009 [|Compete.com] blog entry ranked Twitter as the third most used social network[|[8]] based on their count of 6 million unique monthly visitors and 55 million monthly visits.[|[8]] In March 2009, a [|Nielsen.com] blog ranked Twitter as the fastest-growing site in the Member Communities category for February 2009. Twitter had a monthly growth of 1,382 percent, [|Zimbio] of 240 percent, followed by [|Facebook] with an increase of 228 percent.[|[9]] However, only 40 percent of Twitter's users are retained.[|[10]]

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