Twitter

Twitter is a micro-blogging service where people can post text entries of up to 140 characters. (The text entries, called tweets, are most often a response to the ever-present prompt, "What are you doing?") Tweets can be posted to a user's page via phoned text messages, instant messages, email, or the Twitter site itself. Carrier pigeons, smoke signals, and Morse code updates still in the works.

According to Wikipedia, Twitter began in March of 2006 as a research and development project inside San Francisco start-up company Obvious, LLC. It was initially used internally by the company, and then officially launched in October 2006. They are currently located in the South Park neighborhood of San Francisco and to date, the Twitter team consists of: Evan, Aaron, Alex, Alissa, Ben, Biz, Britt, Crystal, Ev, Jason, Jack, Jeremy, John, Krissy, Lane, Jay, Robey, Steve.

Here is semi-monotone and super-long winded founder Jack Dorsey explaining the Twitter creation story:



The latest media frenzy about Twitter was stirred up in April 2008, when UC Berkeley journalism graduate student James Karl Buck used Twitter to get out of an Egyptian jail. He was abroad covering an anti-government protest when he was arrested. James texted one word, "Arrested," to twitter, which alerted his friends and colleagues. UC Berkeley hired a lawyer on his behalf, and eventually Buck was freed.

It has been similarly useful for spreading news and rumors about earthquakes, structure fires, and your mom.
Though it has some glitches, for the most part twitter is pretty awesome. Although I don't have a good enough phone or desk job that allows me to obsess over it. A-.

(From Wikipedia and Someecards.)

PS: For the disappointed internauts that consider this entry sooooo 2006 and unworthy of TOTI, consider it a "bump-set" for tomorrow's entry... Twitter derivatives and clones.