What’s all the Twittering about?

Twitter is the latest phenomenon to grip the cyber masses, and even presidential candidates are joining in.

The micro-blogging craze of sending brief messages to your circle of friends on any manner of subjects is becoming increasingly popular across the world, so much so that US presidential candidates are seeing it as an intrinsic tool in their campaign. Twitter allows the user to send text blocks of 140 characters or less to designated recipients. Although some people are becoming annoyed at having their friends’ every move related to them, many believe Twitter does actually have a very valid purpose. Twitter can be used to review the latest products, give opinions on current events, or to inform others of a useful website someone has found. Twitter is also being used by presidential candidates John Edwards and Barack Obama to inform their supporters of their campaign’s advancement, and to put across their key arguments in their run for election. The key to Twitter’s success may be that it offers something slightly different from social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace in that the networking is instantaneous. Users can send messages via their browser, instant messaging provider, email or text message, meaning messages can be conveyed with the utmost ease; and this is the fundamental reason behind Twitter’s appeal.

Twitter was started as a research and development project inside Odeo Inc., by start-up company Obvious Corp which also owns the site. The site was quick to develop an international fan base however, and within eighteen months now has users throughout the world. However, the site does face stiff competition from rival sites such as Jaiku, Pownce and the recently-launched European Frazr. These copycat sites are all trying to cash in on Twitter’s success, but at the moment it seems the users who put Twitter on the map are staying loyal, and with a firm business plan on the cards, this success seems only set to continue.

Source:
BBC News