TWITTER – “To speak rapidly and in a tremulous manner” as defined by the dictionary gives an idea of what Twitter the Web service basically is.

But it is a lot more than that: three years after it was made available to the public, Twitter is now ranked as among the most indispensable tools on the Web and is predicted to be as ubiquitous as email in the near future. Essentially, it is a free social networking service that enables users to send and read other users’ updates, known as tweets in real time, and has often been described as “SMS of the Internet”.

But embracers of Twittering will tell you it’s definitely more than that. The rise of Twitter has been remarkable.

According to a report by website analytics specialist Compete.com, Twitter is now the third most popular
social media service after Facebook and MySpace when it comes to Monthly Unique Visits data, with 30 million users last January. And this figure will most likely increase in the future when more Web users start to discover its flexibility and potential uses.

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As with most facilities made available on the Internet, Twitter’s early users and biggest fans were previously limited to the tech-minded – who also tend to be young. With most mainstream Web users, Twitter was seen as a mere fad that would eventually run out of steam and gradually be abandoned, as many Web creations tend to be after their initial introduction.

But not with Twitter.

Instead of declining, its user base has increased drastically over the past six months especially, and is now a common and frequently used tool among many ordinary users. This situation came about as a result
of the publicity it received when well-known personalities like US President Barrack Obama, popular
artistes and media personalities made mention of it.

And Twitter has also found its way into the business and corporate world, with many companies recognising and using it as an invaluable low-cost marketing and public relations tool. In fact, many consider it a “critical” appliance. It is also used by many professionals in various fields as an important aid in work-related projects.

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However, many Malaysian Web users still remain unaware of what Twitter can do to enrich their personal
and professional lives. One of the reasons is the misconceptions that many seem to have about it. There is also confusion about what it really is after they encountered differing definitions and references about Twitter.
One common impression is that Twitter is about “microblogging”, where many might have heard about its 140-word limitation for a post update.

 

It is also synonymous in some minds with “instant messaging” and “Internet SMS”, which often bring in nonsensical or trivial messages sent by strangers. And many who had opened an account with Twitter left the service after just a few days, complaining that “there’s nothing much with it” and wondering what all the fuss is about with Twitter.

But, there is something that every new user should be aware of about the service – it’s something one needs to be patient with! One must be willing to search and learn about what’s available and can be done with it. If the user only logs in to the Twitter website, adds a few contacts and waits for things to happen, he is going to be disappointed.

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The most enthralling aspect about Twitter – and something that has hooked its many fans – is the wealth of information flowing freely. However, the user has to learn where to find and how to filter it to produce what he wants. And to do this, he has to use what are called “Twitter Tools”.

 

There are hundreds of applications that have been developed specifically for Twitter. There are specific add-ons to Web browsers that help users do more things with Twitter, easily and more efficiently too. For example TwitterFox, which is a Firefox extension that notifies users of their friends’ status on Twitter. There are also the powerful desktop applications like TweetDeck that help to extract even more from the service.

This is where and how Twitter has evolved over the past three years and has turned into a service that magically provides something for everybody. One of the reasons for its popularity is that Twitter grants a lot of freedom to Web developers to extract whatever they can think of from the service.

Basically, unlike many providers who insist on users coming to their website and using the services from there, Twitter is content to just provide the infrastructure and hold things together while users do whatever they wish to through their preferred desktop and Web-based applications.

There are many websites that are “Twitter-centric” – like TwitterCounter.com, which provides various
statistics. There is also a list of the “Top 10,000 Users”, where users are ranked according to the number of followers. There is a specific list of the top 100 Malaysian users too, with the leader being “emailcopywriter” with 16,359 followers.

From this one site alone, the new user will be able to add more contacts, besides finding links to various Twitter material and resources on the Internet. As the user becomes more knowledgeable, he will discover more features and uses of Twitter – and gradually tailor something to suit his personal and professional needs.
This Twitter world is big and even changing lifestyles. Like a freelance writer says, “Twitter is paying my rent”.