Facts About Micro Blogging

"Blogging" is a relatively new form of written communication that is completely internet web-based. The term originated as a shortened form of "web logging", as blogging was originally a way for people to post personal journals or logs on the web. Blogging has evolved over the years into being used for all forms of personal and business communications; sometimes blogs are used just to publish personal or family information, other times blogs are used to promote businesses and produce income.

Micro-blogging is a term for a relatively new form of blogging; using very short text messages (usually 140 characters or less) to instantly publish information. Micro-bloggers designate specific people to have the ability to receive their messages, usually because of similar interests or demographics. Micro-blogging has become very popular in recent years because of its ease-of-use and ability to carry on instant conversations between users on the same micro-blogging network.

Micro-blogging is a form of "social media networking", as well as another form of "instant messaging". Each of these web-only forms of communication has its own platform, and users must be registered at each site in order to use the particular format.

The most-used and most-popular micro-blogging site is Twitter (www.twitter.com). Twitter has become the standard for micro-blogging; so much so that, like Google (www.google.com) for search engines, it has become a verb that is often substituted for all micro-blogging. Twitter users send what are called "tweets" (the symbol and logo for Twitter is a stylized bird), which are updates on their "status" or what they are "doing now". Because Twitter has decided to use an open platform, hundreds of third-party developers have designed applications that use the Twitter standard. People can "twitter" or send a "tweet" from their computers or cell phones; either by typing or physically speaking into their computer or phone speakers. Most people send just text tweets, although it is possible to send pictures, websites, and videos through Twitter.

Pounce (www.pounce.com) is a micro-blogging site that allows users to send files, videos, pictures, and event notices to their contacts. Similarity, Jaiku (www.jaiku.com) seeks to differentiate itself from Twitter by adding greater functionality to its users.

Tumblr (www.tumblr.com)is meant to be more of a mini-blog site for its users; allowing longer updates with pictures, videos, links, and chats. Tumblr is popular with people who do not have the time or the inclination to develop or maintain full-fledged blogs, but want to say more than can be said in less than 200 text characters.

Micro-blogging is different from "social media" networks such as Friendfeed (www.friendfeed.com), Facebook (www.facebook.com), and MySpace (www.myspace.com), which each have their own niches and methods for sharing information. There are also many picture-sharing sites such as Picasa and Flickr that allow users to make their own picture files and slideshows to send to their friends or post to their personal or business blogs and websites. However, actual micro-blogging sites such as Twitter have become so popular that other forms of social media are now integrating their technologies to take advantage of the millions of users of sites like Twitter.

Different micro-blogging sites have become so popular that new types of sites have been launched to help people manage all of their micro-blogging sites. Applications such as Ping (www.ping.fm) allow users to manage all of their social networking and micro-blogging sites from one place and post to all of them from the same application. In the past few years, the number of such web-only sites has grown so fast that entirely new terms have been invented. A "mashup" is an application that combines the functionality of two of more other applications.

The easy availability of open-source development codes has made it possible for third-party software developers to quickly integrate the code of separate applications. A good example of a mashup is an application that combines the functionality of an online mapping service with software used by real estate agents to feature houses for sale. With the new "mashup" application, visitors to the real estate agent's website can see all of the information about a particular house as well as immediately see a map of the home's location and get driving directions to the location.

Meanwhile, the prospective homebuyers can send a "tweet" to all of their friends with instant updates about the house they are seeing in real time and at the same time post pictures of the house to their personal blog about their on-going house hunting adventure.