What is 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 costs nothing to use, accessing it through SMS may incur phone service provider fees.
Micro-blogging is defined as a quick update usually containing a very limited number of characters. It is a popular feature of social networks like Facebook where you can update your status, but it has become best known because of Twitter.
In essence, micro-blogging is for people who want a blog but don’t want to blog. A personal blog can keep people informed on what is going on in your life, but not everyone wants to spend an hour crafting a beautiful post about the vibrant colors seen on a butterfly spotted in the front time. Sometimes, you just want to say “went shopping for a new car but didn’t find anything” or “watched Dancing With the Stars and Warren Sapp sure can dance.”
That’s where Twitter comes into the picture. It’s a great place for keeping people informed on what you are up to without the need to spend a lot of time crafting an entire post on the subject. You just say what’s up and leave it at that.
Source: Wikipedia, About