• Twitter is a micro-blogging service that allows users to post short messages called tweets to a stream that can be viewed by the user's friends and contacts. Users can also see the tweets of their friends. Tweets can be posted via the web site, text messages from a cell phone or any of the various third-party applications designed to work with Twitter.

  Following the elections in Iran in June of 2009, the U.S. State Department reportedly asked Twitter to postpone scheduled maintenance to their system as the Iranians were using the service to coordinate protests to the disputed election results.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/16/AR2009061601221.html

• Fast Facts

  1. Launched in October of 2006
  2. Gained large following after South By Southwest interactive conference of 2007
  3. Written in Ruby on Rails
  4. Free to use
  5. Tweets can be up to 140 characters
  6. Posting tweets from a cell phone is free, except for the phone provider charge for the text message
  7. 29 employees (as of February 2009)Twitter Blog: Opportunity Knocks (February 13, 2009)
  8. Japanese version launched in April of 2008
  9. Estimated 1.9 million unique visitors in December 2008TechCrunch: Did Twitter Just Pass Digg? (January 20, 2009)
  10. Number of active users grew 900% between early 2008 and early 2009Twitter Blog: Opportunity Knocks (February 13, 2009)
  11. Received funding from: Benchmark Capital, Institutional Venture Partners, Bezos Expeditions and Spark CapitalTwitter Blog: Opportunity Knocks (February 13, 2009) Twitter Blog: Welcoming Bijan and Jeff (June 24, 2008)

• Twitter TV Show

  In late-May of 2009, Twitter announced that it was working with Reveille and Brillstein Entertainment to develop a Twitter reality TV show. The unscripted series is said to put "ordinary people on the trail of celebrities in a revolutionary competitive format."

• Awards and Acquisitions

  Twitter was named Webby Breakout of the Year on May 5, 2009. Also on May 5, rumors began to surface that Apple was involved in late-stage negotiations to buy Twitter for $700 million. Spokespersons at both Apple and Twitter have declined to comment on any buyout negotiations.PC World: Jimmy Fallon Wins Top Webby... (May 5, 2009)Computerworld: Apple said to make $700M buyout bid... (May 5, 2009)

• Twitter Arrest

  On April 15, 2009, Daniel Knight Hayden was arrested, believed to be the first person arrested for making threats via Twitter.CNET: FBI accuses Twitter user of massacre threats (April 26, 2009)

• Oprah Effect

  Market tracker Hitwise conducted a before and after survey to measure the "Oprah Effect" on Twitter. According to Hitwise, Twitter experienced a 43 percent increase in traffic after Oprah announced her presence on the micro-blogging site. Additionally, 37 percent of Twitter's traffic on Oprah's first day of tweeting, April 17, 2009, were from new Twitter users.USA Today: Oprah effect: 43% jump in Twitter traffic (April 21, 2009)

• Kutcher vs. CNN

  On April 17, 2009, actor Ashton Kutcher became the first Twitter user to have one million followers. Kutcher was in a race with CNN, with both sending donations to purchase nets to protect against the spread of Malaria in Africa.Cnet: Ashton Outmaneuvers CNN to 1 Million on Twitter Kutcher's story was featured on the April 17, 2009, episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, during which Oprah Winfrey was sending her first Tweet.Bits (NYT): Oprah's First Words on Twitter: "HI TWITTERS"

• Twitter Worms

  Over the weekend of April 11, 2009, Twitter was the target of two separate worm attacks. The first one was attributed to the website StalkDaily, despite the site's insistence that it was not involved. On Sunday, April 12, a new worm appeared, taking the same format as the StalkDaily worm, but flaunting the name of 'mikeyy' instead. The worm works by stealing user's twitter information when they visit an infected profile. Then it replicates by changing profile information and sending unwanted tweets.Mashable: Another Twitter Worm ... (April 12, 2009)

• Twitter Funding

  On February 13, 2009, Twitter announced on their blog that they had closed deals to receive funding from Benchmark Capital and Institutional Venture Partners. According to the post, the increased funding would be used to more efficiently support the growing service, hire more staff, and "begin building revenue-generating products."Twitter Blog: Opportunity Knocks (February 13, 2009)

• Twestival

  On February 12, 2009, over 175 cities worldwide will be hosting Twestivals - special events at which Twitter users can gather, meet and socialize while raising money for charity. All the funds raised through the volunteer-organized events and sales will be donated to charity:water.Official Site: Twestival.com

• Twitter Surpasses Digg

  On January 20, 2009, the blog TechCrunch reported that Twitter had surpassed the popular news aggregation service Digg in visits. The news came on the day of Barack Obama's presidential inauguration, which was expected to cause five times the number of "tweets" per second as a typical day. TechCrunch's numbers were based on those provided by Hitwise; other analytical services such as Quantcast and Compete still show Digg with more visits than Twitter.TechCrunch: Did Twitter Just Pass Digg? (January 20, 2009)

• Twitter Suggestions

  Twitter launched the application Twitter Suggestions in January 2009. It gives Twitter users suggestions on who they might want to follow on the Web site. Twitter did not immediately disclose what the suggestions are based on.Mashable: Twitter Launches Suggestions Tool (January 15, 2009) It has been suggested on a number of blogs that Twitter Suggestions could be a way to monetize the Twitter service in the future, should the company decide to "sell" placement on a suggested friends list.Read Write Web: Twitter May Have Found Its Business Model (January 15, 2009)

• TweetNews

  Yahoo Boss launched the new service TweetNews on January 15, 2009. TweetNews is a news search engine that ranks stories based on breaking news postings on Twitter.cnet: Yahoo BOSS + Twitter + Google App Engine = fresh news (January 15, 2009)

• Phish Attack

  Many Twitter users' sensitive account information was put at risk on January 3, 2008, with the spread of a phishing attack campaign that was transferred through the company's "direct messaging" service. The malicious direct message read, "hey! check out this funny blog about you..." followed by a link to a blogspot site. The blogspot link redirected to a clone of Twitter's main site, leading users to believe they needed to log-in to the service. The cloned site was actually a phishing method of retrieving users' passwords through a fake sign-in form. Twitter placed a warning message on users' main feed interface once they were notified of the phishing scam.Chris Pirillo: Phishing Scam Spreading on Twitter (January 3, 2009)

• Third-Party Applications

  Many third-party developers have created applications that work with Twitter, each with its own unique features. Twhirl is a popular client with many useful features, but it requires the Adobe AIR runtime to work. Twitterific is another popular Twitter application, and though it is not as powerful or versatile as Twhirl, it is much easier to install.

• Twitter's Competition

  Twitter's success has been a key to the proliferation of other sites that have similar services. Among these were Jaiku, Pownce, and Dopplr. Jaiku and Pownce, which functioned in much the same was as Twitter and were backed by Google and Digg founder Kevin Rose, respectively, both ceased development in late 2008 and early 2009. Jaiku will live on as an open-source project running on Google App Engine. Dopplr is notable for focusing on travel and featuring other travel-related functions with their service.

• Related Pages on Mahalo

  Legacy Locker | Twitter TV Show | How to Use Twitter | How to Use FriendFeed | Jaiku | Pownce | Dopplr | Evan Williams | Biz Stone | Twhirl | Twitterific | Tweetmeme | Twittiquette | Twitter Song | Social Networking | Chris Brogan | John Cleese Twitter | Fake Follow | TwitterKeys | QikCom | Identi.ca | Fring | Qwitter | Lizzer | Cursebird.com | Facebook Twitter | Twitterank | Hiogi | Girl in Your Shirt | HugeURL | Posterous | Mr. Tweet | Magpie Twitter | Twitter Hacked | Rick Sanchez | Historical Tweets | Yahoo Boss | How to Set Up a Blog for Beginners | Twestival | Xu Lai | How to Use Posterous | How to Monitor Your Child's Text Messages | Twouble with Twitters | Twitter Ghost Writers | How to Customize Your Twitter Profile | How to Find People | Mike Massimino | How to Get More Followers on Twitter | How to Make Money Using Twitter

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