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What's So Great About Twitter?

By Richard Adams

Republish: EasyPublish™
Published: 20Dec2008
Word count: 721
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"What are you doing?" This is the question that Twitter asks you upon logging in or upon opening the site. Just what are you doing? If this is how the site charms its members, what's so great about Twitter?

First, you need to know what the site is. Basically, it is a social network and micro-blogging service. If you are familiar with FaceBook, MySpace, or Multiply, then you'll have no problems getting into Twitter.

As a social network, it aims to gather groups of people who have the same interests. As a micro-blogging service, it provides short updates on the users blogs, or even just his activities.

Twitter is all about the "tweets", or updates. Updates are the answers to the ultimate Twitter question: "What are you doing?" What's great about Twitter is that is only requires you 140 characters to answer the site's central question. To many, the prescribed length of characters is seen as a limitation. On the other hand, it challenges you to say things using fewer words. After all, less is always more!

So again, what's so great about Twitter? What makes it different from other social networking sites?

The Terms

The terms that Twitter uses are unique and interesting enough to differentiate the site from other social networks, like "tweet", for example. Below is a list of Twitter terms that you need to be familiar with:

1.Follower - Those who have chosen to receive your tweets. Simply put, these are your friends who want to be updated about your life.

2.Following - Those whom you want to be updated about. For instance, if you are following Anna, you will receive Anna's tweets regularly. Following Anna essentially shows that you want to know what Anna is up to as of the moment.

3.Nudge - This is a friendly reminder to your circle, urging them to give out updates. You can nudge, and you can be nudged.

The Commands

The commands used in Twitter are plain and simple, no pesky steps that need to be followed. If you want to tweet, you simply have to write your message in the small box on top of your page.

The registration process? Simply wonderful! You don't need to key in a number of unimportant pieces of personal information. You just have to be ready with a username (and Twitter checks out the availability of that chosen name right then and there), a password, an email address, and a URL to your personal site or blog, if you have one. The registration process takes no more than 2 minutes of your time.

The Ways to Receive the Tweets

With Twitter, you are provided with more than one way of sending your tweets. This feature is perhaps the most remarkable edge of Twitter. So how can you post your 140-character updates?

1. Through your home page at Twitter.com. - This is the most widely-used method of tweeting. The home page is so friendly and is neat-looking. As such, you aren't bothered by pesky pop-ups, complicated commands, and useless applications whose sole purpose is to make the page look heavy. Now with such an atmosphere, isn't it nice to just randomly type in your thoughts? Even tweets such as "I'm bored" are very welcome on Twitter!

2. Through your mobile phone. - Before you can use this feature, you need to verify your number first. It can be done in a few simple steps.

Before you start, however, you initially need to check if your area or country of residence supports this type of service. Surely, those living in the US and Canada will fully enjoy the advantages of this feature.

3. Through http://www.m.twitter.com. - This is Twitter's mobile site.

4. Through third-party applications. - Twitter Fan Wiki is the most popular third party application that uses Twitter's API (Application Programming Interface). As it is a "wiki", you can add, remove, and edit available content. You simply have to create an account to join this group.

Twitter is a relatively new network. Its official launching can be traced back no more than two years ago - July 15, 2006, to be exact. Despite this, it has gathered more than 3 million accounts in just over two years of operation. This shows how increasingly popular Twitter has become.

So, what's so great about Twitter? Everything!

For more information on Twitter as well as other life streaming services, visit our new life streaming blog at http://www.LifeStreamingNews.com

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