Twitter is a service of communication between people. The initial objective of this service was to know what our acquaintances were doing, but lately it began to be used for publishing all kinds of novelties.
All Twitter messages are written using the following method: when someone enters its web site he finds a message with the question “What’s happening?”, and a text box to answer it. This answer must have at most 140 characters because the system doesn’t allow it to be longer. The result of this method is that each user sends various short messages, and that is the reason why Twitter is called a microblogging service.
Twitter messages are commonly written and read on its website, but they can also be manipulated from a cell phone or from applications such as instant messaging programs.
Twitter allows its users to select the people from whom they will receive updates as well as when and through what device they will receive them. For example, a user can set Twitter to stop sending him messages to his cell phone at dinner time.
In 2009 Twitter signed deals to allow Google and Bing to access its real-time data and display this information in their search results. Thus, the microblogging service started to be profitable.
