Twitter takes on the world: 140 characters at a time

The question “Do you Twitter?” was asked throughout 2009 by users of the Web's most popular microblogging service. Whereas a traditional Web log, or blog, might be updated with long entries once or twice a day, a Twitter user might post dozens of short messages of up to 140 characters—called “tweets”—in the same period. In addition to this aspect of the service, which worked in some ways like an Internet or mobile telephone instant messaging client, Twitter incorporated features of traditional social networking Web sites, such as MySpace and Facebook. Twitter users (alternatively called Twitterers, Tweeters, or simply Twits) could elect to receive the tweets of other posters or track specific topics, creating a dialogue of sorts and potentially pushing the number of “followers” in a given Twitter feed into the millions. In April 2009 actor Ashton Kutcher made the news when he became the first Twitterer to collect more than a million followers.

While the service itself made headlines throughout the year, its users made their own, transforming Twitter from something that was regarded as an idle hobby for an increasingly wired world into an up-to-the-second news outlet that transcended political borders. On January 15, commuter ferry passenger Janis Krums broke the story of the successful water landing of U.S. Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River when he sent out a tweet stating that his ferry was going to rescue people from the downed plane. Krums's hastily snapped camera-phone image of passengers disembarking the half-submerged aircraft was uploaded to Twitpic.com, a photo-hosting service for Twitter users; the site promptly crashed as thousands of Twitterers attempted to view it. Twitterers scored another scoop in June when National Basketball Association star Shaquille O'Neal learned of his trade from the Phoenix Suns to the Cleveland Cavaliers via tweet. Although celebrity accounts tended to attract hackers interested in little more than sophisticated pranks, a massive denial-of-service attack in August targeted an economics professor in the republic of Georgia, knocking out the entire site for hours. Millions of users attempted to log into Twitter only to be greeted by the service's iconic “fail whale”—the image of a cartoon whale being hoisted into the air by a flock of birds, signaling a site outage. In November a NASA “tweetup” saw tweets from 100 lucky Twitterers who were allowed to observe and tweet about the lift-off of the space shuttle Atlantis from the John F. Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida. On hand was astronaut Michael Massimino, who posted the first tweet from space during a shuttle mission in May.

Nowhere was Twitter's role as an emerging outlet for the dissemination of information more apparent than during the events surrounding the Iranian election in June 2009. As state media sources reported that Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had secured an easy victory, supporters of opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi took to the streets in a series of increasingly violent demonstrations. The topic known as #IranElection became one of the most followed on Twitter as Mousavi supporters coordinated protests and posted live updates of events throughout Tehran. On June 15, three days after the election, Twitter delayed a 90-minute maintenance period at the request of the U.S. State Department, rescheduling it for 1:30 AM Tehran time in order to avoid interfering with the flow of information within and from Iran. The following day foreign journalists were banned from covering opposition rallies, and Twitter, along with other social networking sites, filled the void left by the traditional media. Government security officers tried to stanch the flow of information by blocking the Web site, while opposition supporters urged #IranElection followers to change their profile settings to the Tehran time zone in an attempt to overwhelm government filters. Events reached a fever pitch following the shooting of Neda Agha-Soltan as she was leaving a protest on June 20. A mobile phone video of the young woman's graphic death was posted on the YouTube video-sharing Web site, and by the following day “Neda” was both the rallying cry of the opposition and one of the top trending topics on Twitter.

The creators of Twitter—social media entrepreneur Evan Williams, social networking expert Christopher Isaac (“Biz”) Stone, and messaging-software engineer Jack Dorsey—did not envision such a paradigm shift when they first designed and launched the service in 2006. From its inception, Twitter was primarily a free short messaging service (SMS) with a social networking element. As such, it lacked the clear revenue stream that one could find on sites that derived income from advertising or membership fees. With the number of unique visitors increasing some 1,300% in 2009, it was clear that Twitter was more than a niche curiosity, though it was as yet unclear if Twitter could achieve financial independence from its venture-capital investors (there was speculation that the company might eventually issue public shares). In July the Twitter site was revamped to put a greater emphasis on its expanding role as a source for “what's happening right now, anywhere in the world.” As Stone publicly acknowledged later in the year, Twitter had “long outgrown the concept of personal status updates.” Meanwhile, Twitter remained focused on the essentials: improving site stability; introducing new features such as search, list, and an optional geolocator tag; and ensuring that its tens of millions of users could continue to live the tweet life.

Michael Ray - Research Editor, Encyclopædia Britannica.

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Twitter

Online service for distributing short messages among groups of recipients via personal computer or mobile telephone.

Twitter incorporates aspects of social networking Web sites, such as MySpace and Facebook, with instant-messaging technologies to create networks of users who can communicate throughout the day with brief messages, or “tweets.” A user types a tweet via mobile-phone keypad or computer and sends it to Twitter’s server, which relays it to a list of other users who have signed up to receive the sender’s tweets (known as followers) by either text message to their mobile phones or instant message to their personal computers. Tweets may be on any subject, ranging from jokes to news to dinner plans, but they cannot exceed 140 characters.

Twitter was written on a specialized Web-application framework of the Ruby computer-programming language. Its interface allows open adaptation and integration with other online services. Twitter was created in 2006 by the American podcasting company Odeo (later Obvious Corp.), and in 2007 the software spun off into its own entity. Twitter, Inc., which was founded on a heavy infusion of venture capital, offered the service to the public for free. As its popularity exploded around the world, however, costs escalated, and the company began adjusting its business model, scaling back free phone-based short message service (SMS) in many areas and seeking means of generating revenue.

While Twitter’s roots are in social, peer-to-peer (P2P) networking, businesses soon began sending tweets about promotions and events. Political campaigns have also used Twitter for promotion, as well as for communication between field organizers and workers. Twitter has been used by journalists and ordinary citizens to report from the scenes of breaking-news events. For example, most journalists were prevented from reporting on protest rallies in Tehrān following a disputed Iranian presidential election in June 2009. Though television and radio coverage had been suppressed, Iranian citizens used Twitter and social Web sites, such as Facebook, to share information concerning alleged voting irregularities and plans for protest marches. Perhaps as important as the eyewitness information going out by protesters was feedback they received from around the world in support of their efforts.

Facebook

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, 2007

American company offering online social networking services. Facebook was founded as a social networking Web site in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes, all of whom were students at Harvard University. Membership was initially limited to Harvard students but gradually expanded to include all college students, high school students, and, eventually, anyone past age 13. The site generates revenue through advertising. Facebook headquarters are in Palo Alto, Calif.

Access to Facebook online is free of charge. New users can create profiles, upload photos, join a preexisting network, and start new networks. The site has many components, including the Wall, a space on each user's profile page where friends can post messages; Status, which enables users to alert friends to their current location or situation; and News Feed, which informs users of changes to a friend's profile.

Facebook added numerous features following its inception. For example, it allowed users to create their own blogs starting in August 2006. In February 2007 it launched Gifts, which allowed users to send virtual gifts (icons) to friends for a nominal fee. A few months later the company launched Facebook Marketplace, which allowed users to post free classified ads, and Facebook Platform, which enabled users to create new applications that interacted with or enhanced existing Facebook applications. In June 2008 the company made part of its software code open source (essentially copyright free), as Facebook Open Platform, in order to entice more third-party software developers into writing applications that enhance the features in its social networking site. This move was widely seen as a response to one of its competitors, Google, which launched Open Social in November 2007 in order to make it easier for developers to write applications for MySpace and other competing social networking sites. In November 2007 Facebook launched Facebook Beacon, which allowed users to share information from other Web sites, including information about their activities on those Web sites.

Google Inc.

Larry Page (left) and Sergey Brin

American search engine company, founded in 1998 by Sergey Brin and Larry Page. About 70 percent of all online search requests are handled by Google, placing it at the heart of most Internet users' experience. The company's headquarters are located in Mountain View, Calif.

Flag of Nepal

Non-rectangular national flag consisting of two united pennant (triangular flag) shapes. Nepal is the only country in the modern world that does not have a rectangular national flag. It is crimson with blue borders and incorporates stylized symbols of the sun and moon.

Hundreds of independent states existed on the Indian subcontinent prior to the period of British control there in the 17th–19th centuries. Many of these countries, including Nepal, had state flags of their own, their symbols usually representing the ruling dynasty. Frequently, the flag designs, shapes, and colours were (by European standards) unusual. Most of those flags disappeared as the British extended their control; the remainder lost international validity with the establishment of independent India in 1947.

Nepal has remained a separate, sovereign kingdom and proudly flies its traditional flag, whose basic design dates back for centuries. The background colour is crimson, the border a dark blue—both popular colours in Nepalese art and decoration. In the upper segment is a white moon emitting eight rays, with a crescent attached below; in the bottom segment appears a white, stylized sun with 12 rays. These two symbols are associated with different dynasties and also express the hope that the country may have the same longevity as the sun and moon. Originally, there were facial features represented in red on both the sun and moon. The present flag, which omits those features, was established under the new constitution of December 16, 1962. The same symbols appear on the dozens of different civil and military flags used by Nepalese officials.

Whitney Smith - Director, Flag Research Center, Winchester, Massachusetts. Author of The Flag Book of the United States and Flags and Arms Across the World.