Twitter – A Social Networking Platform and a Micro Blogging Business Service

From the beginning, most folks mistook Twitter for a site that was setup to be a rival to some of the already established and existing social networking platforms. Although many welcomed the idea of a social networking service that would stand as a rival to Facebook and MySpace, their expectations did tumble because Twitter later turned out as an entirely new and fresh idea.

Twitter is a website that is operated and run by Twitter Inc. The site offers a platform that provides its users with social networking and micro blogging services. Twitter was launched in the year 2006 and it was established with the sole aim of providing its user with a platform where they can have that social experience that they so desire.

With Twitter, registered members can communicate and connect with other registered members by sending out short messages that are known as tweets. Tweets are short messages of about 140 characters that are displayed on a users profile page. The visibility of these messages is made public by default. However, a user can alter his or her setting to make the message visible only to those who his is connected with (his followers).

Twitter connects people by allowing them to have followers and people who they follow. A user can connect with other users by following them or by getting them to follow him. A follower and his followers can relate with each other by communicating through tweets and private messages. Although Twitter was deployed on a web interface, the services that it provides can be accessed through computers and mobile devices like PDAs and mobile phones.

Twitter uses a web interface that is clean fresh and stunning and the site has reinvented its logo, designs and interface several times to meet with the demand of its users. Like most other social networking platforms, Twitter has a developers section that is dedicated to developers who might want to develop apps that will run on the Twitter platform.

Although Twitter has been able to provide its users with a social networking platform where they can connect, socialize, and get that social experience that they desire, the site has failed in protecting the privacy of its users. For instance, Twitter does share the private information of its users with third parties. In terms of security, most users of Twitter are at risk of having their personal information compromised and their identity stolen since their telephone details in visible to their followers who could be social engineers and hackers.