When you sign in to Twitter, go to the third button along the top. Click on Find People. A page will open, entitled: Are Your Friends on Twitter?

Invite From Other Networks

Here's where things get exciting. You can invite friends from other networks: Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, MSN, Gmail. You enter in your e-mail address and Twitter checks to see who already has a Twitter account. Neat, eh?

Invite by E-mail

Just thought of that friend over in England? Shoot him an e-mail via Twitter, which tells him that you want to keep abreast of his latest happenings through Twitter. The e-mail explains the Twitter concept of keeping in touch in time-saving 140-word-or-less dibblings and dabblings.

Search

You can also choose the Search tab, which allows you to search for someone by name or location. What I like about this function is that you can also search by subject. What I mean is that if you want to search for something that interests you, let's say "parrots" you simply type that into the box. A page will open showing those who have used the word in their names, others who have an interest in parrots or who own them, and those who have parrot-related websites or blogs.

Why is Search so Handy?

• Do you like new recipes? Why not type in "recipes" to see what's up in cyberspace? I did this and found some excellent blogs and websites that included mouth-watering recipes and accompanying pictures of tempting dishes.

• Are you interested in networking with other writers? Try typing "writers"

• Are you interested in tech gadgets? Type in "computers" for computer and software news. You'll get the gen on fellow enthusiasts and find sites that can further your knowledge.

Whatever your interest, whether in making friends or in finding interesting sites and blogs, Twitter's Find People button is a fast and painless route to staying in touch and in the know.

All Things Twitter

• How to Use Twitter
  

• Twitter Gadgets

• How to Add Your Website or Blog to Twitter

• Adding Twitter to Your Website

• Using Twitter to Gain a Following for Your Triond Articles

For Newbies

If you are thinking of joining Twitter, one of the easiest and fastest ways to understand the Twitter concept is to watch the Twitter Movie. You simply go to the Twitter page and click on the red bar on the upper right, which is entitled: Watch a Video. This little movie walks you through Twitter, explaining how to use Twitter to keep up with friends.

As is mentioned in the movie, life happens--between blogging and mobile phones. Twitter gives people the chance to update others about their doings in short easy-to-manage bites of 140 words or less.

For Experienced Twitter Users

Twitter Options and Gadgets

• You can use the Search function to locate your friends and keep abreast of all their happenings.
• If you scroll to the bottom of the Twitter page and click on "Downloads" you can select other ways to receive Twitter updates.
• If you want even more Twitter apps check out Twitter Fan Wiki Apps.

Twitter just keeps getting better and better--and more and more people are using Twitter. It's an idea that has taken the Internet by storm.

Further Reading

• Adding Twitter to Your Website
• How to Add Your Website or Blog to Twitter
• Using Twitter to Gain a Following for Your Triond Articles
• How to Use Twitter

To add to the confusion, when they try to type into Twitter's horizontal box, they see the mysterious "140" going down.

I remember thinking: am I being penalized for something? Is that the number of posts I have left?

Of course, most of us could just read through the site for enlightenment but, come on, how many of us take the time to familiarize ourselves with all the rules and regulations at each site. YAWN!

How to Use Twitter

• Twitter creators realized that people are busy and hence Twitter was designed for short communications--a way to catch up news with friends, in time-saving short bursts.
  
• Twitter asks: What are you doing?
• You type 140 words or less into the box to let others know what you are up to

Once you get on to using Twitter, it is rather fun. It allows you to keep track of friends and what's happening in their lives.

An added advantage for writers is that Twitter capability is included via Triond's bookmarking services. You can use Twitter to gain a following for your Triond articles.

We all want time-saving tools. Twitter is one of them. Are you using Twitter to full advantage?

Further Reading

• Creating Search Engine Friendly Article Titles
• Learn How to Type Without Looking
• Bookmarking: To Be or Not to Be, That is the Question

Barack's Digg Profile

Thats right, Barack's on Digg. If fact for a busy politician running for president, he's pretty active and has submitted and popularized some great stuff. Digg always has front page info about Barack, so visiting the popular in politics pages, you will find more than enough information on Barack news.

How Obama Stands On Almost Every Issue

A rundown of almost all of Obama's standing on issues from civil rights to the environment to corporations and war. If you're new to learning about Barack Obama, visit this site first to learn more about how he stands on almost all the deciding issues during a election. You can find his stance on almost anything here.

Obama's Facebook Profile

Like Obama's myspace page, his facebook page is very similar. The fact that he is reaching out through mediums such as myspace, facebook, flickr and twitter shows dedication to the youth and trying to connect with them and get them involved with politics and their country.

Barack's Twitter Account

Yeah. He Twitters too. In fact he has great tweets, and their not pesky or bothersome. An informative way to keep up with where he is, who he's speaking too and campaign news from Barack himself.

Baracks Official Wesbite

This link will take you directly to his official campaign website and stance on the issues. I have also included a link with a summary of more of his views in broader categories and his voting history.

Obama's YouTube Channel

Barack's youtube page is the first place to go for new campaign videos, videos of his speeches, meetings, debates and so much more. Almost 1200 videos and countless hours of everything you could ever want for in front of camera appearances.

Flickr Stream

It's pretty cool to see Barack's Flickr stream, where you see the pictures from a president elect's point of view, and not just user submitted photos of him. You can also keep up with where he is, because he has thousands of photos.

Barack's MySpace Profile

If you're a big myspace fan, friend him and check out his myspace. It's similar to his facebook and his official campaign page. Having a myspace page, hopefully he can connect with and encourage more of our youth to do more research and get involved with their countries issues.

Wikipedia Barack

Check Wikipedia for more information on Barack. If your not a wiki fan then go to his website. But wiki has a great database of information about his early life and early political career.

Official Voting History

Check Obama's voting history since being a senator. This is for you if you are a die hard fact checker, you can see how he voted during each of the sessions, on each issue.

Stance on Foreign Policy

A great question and answer session with Barack about his stance on foreign policy, from war in Iraq, to Chinese growth and development, to Iran and North Korea. Great to hear it quoted directly from Obama instead of it being transcribed ten times over by the mainstream media.

Daily Kos

Daily Kos is the biggest political blog on the internet and is a liberally leaning democratic grassroots blog. The idea is activism and contributing editors that are selected through the Kos community. Daily Kos will almost always be in discussion over Obama's political track, many times breaking news and uncovering follies of big media conglomerates.

Hopefully these websites will encourage people to learn more about Obama and educate themselves, their friends, peers and family. Becoming active in politics and issues that directly affect you is crucial, especially for our youth. Voting is the number one easiest way to get involved.

Fortunately, one of the aforementioned friends - the one who sits right beside me at work - bullied me to start an account in one of these new sites where all you have to do is periodically answer the question "What are you doing" in a small box, in 140 characters or less.

That got me started on the joys of "tweeting". And I'm enjoying it so much, I just needed to share it, so here are the things I love most about this mini-blog site called Twitter.

It takes less than five seconds to "blog".

Imagine, you only need to type less than 140 characters in a small box to answer, "What are you doing?" and you're done "blogging". Whatever you've typed is seen by all the people following you, even the ones who normally don't read blogs.

This has made it easy for me to announce that I'm currently "craving pizza, and stepping out to buy one," and "disgusted [because] it's raining outside and I didn't have an umbrella."

It takes 30 seconds to find out what all your other friends (or kids) are up to.

Since all updates on the people I'm following are on one page, it just takes a 30-second scroll down for me to know that Terry is "going wild with [her] new credit card in a bookstore," Emmy is "having instant noodles and loving it," and Annie is "missing [her] baby" because she's at work and her baby is at home, and she "[wants] to be a stay-at-home mom."

And yes, I've hear of people keeping tabs on their kids this way too, because kids tend to let their guard down when they're online, even if they know that their parents are following them - I guess they tend to forget.

It takes less than five seconds to sympathize, or react, or ask for details, etc.

With the above comments, I could easily click on the reply button to remind Terry to control herself(!), ask Emmy what instant noodles could be that good, and sigh with Annie that "I want to be a stay-at-home mom too!"

It lets me update through SMS!

So even when I'm away from my computer, I can easily let all my friends know that I'm "caught in traffic. Will be at work in half an hour," or "giving up and going home. See you tomorrow!"

And all this by texting TWIT through my cell phone.

It beats the daily news, hands down.

Is there an earthquake at the other side of the world? If one of your Twitter friends was there, you'll surely hear about it even before the aftershocks come.

If it's raining outdoors, you'll know: somebody will be tweeting about it. If there's a traffic jam on a major road, somebody will definitely be tweeting about it.

Twitter gives you first-hand news in real time, very convenient for busy people.

I still hope to update my real blog someday. And yes, I still want to open that Facebook account. I just don't know when I'll have the time to get to them. But when I do, I'll be tweeting about it.

Plurk is a microblogging website that's been described as a synergy of Pownce and Twitter, sans all the chugging and isolation to one question (What are you doing?) Plurk has an attractive timeline design and a great color template. Wayne Smallman calls Plurk “more than a Twitter clone. Plurk is themed IM (Instant Messaging) for groups of people spread out on a time line,” (What is Plurk?). Plurk has a karma system, allowing users to grow and gain more freedom of customization and use as they participate and invite friends. The karma system encourages continuance of use and conversation amongst users.

Plurk has a very wide variety of features. Here are a select few:

• Whatever you want to say: Plurk is not isolated to the question “What are you doing?”, but it allows you to say or narrate whatever you want to say or do!
• Karma system: Plurk features a karma system which indirectly promotes conversation and site-utilization.
• Cliques: Groups in Twitter are what Cliques are in Plurk. Plurk allows you to easily segregate friends and associates into cliques.
• Timeline: A very attractive timeline design that allows one to not only view a large array of plurks, but also shift through timelines to see what went on two or three days in the past!
• Lag: If you're coming off the boat from Twitter, for one, it must have taken the boat a long time to get here. Jokes aside, the lag of Twitter is not seen nearly as frequently as on Plurk.

If you don't think it's worth it to at least check out Plurk, think again, I checked out the site out of sheer curiousity and now plan to make a full migration to Plurk. Plurk is basically Twitter without the slow motion and with so much more freedom you can feel the wind against your bare face when you make the switch.

 

What is Microblogging?

Microblogging is a quick and easy way to maintain a web log (or blog). Traditionally, writing and maintaining a blog can take a few hours to set up. You have to select a theme, plug-ins, install the blogging software, select a host, and so on. Blog posts do not necessarily take a lot of time to create, although text formatting, image selection, and other editing considerations can make blog posts a time-consuming exercise.

In contrast, microblogging is designed for short, quick bursts of text that are published instantly. The idea behind microblogging is to capture a quick thought or idea with ease. To date, microblogs are hosted by a few select organizations, including Jaiku, Pownce, and Twitter. Twitter, in particular, is famous for its ease of use and for its now famous 140 character limit per blog entry. Other platforms, such as Pownce, have fewer restrictions on the size of a blog entry and also allow you to include images and other file attachments.

You can also send links to websites by microblogging. For those sites with a limitation on entry size, additional technology (e.g. TinyURL) is used to compress the size of the hyperlink, which can be very handy indeed.

A Public, Real-Time Stream of Information

Microblogging does not occur in a vacuum. In fact, microblogging is an extremely social function. Microblogging includes friend lists just like instant messenger software or social news websites. You can add people to your friend lists and they can do the same for you. Your friend list allows you to see a personalized feed of microblog updates with a minimal time delay, usually a matter of a few minutes. It's fascinating to watch the stream of microblog entries stream by. Some are clearly public statements of current events, but in other cases people hold conversations with each other by their microblog entries.

On top of that, certain microblog platforms (e.g. Twitter) publish their entire public stream of blog entries. This stream gives you an amazing “stream of consciousness” view of things that are happening on the Web. It's like watching a massive group instant messaging session.

As Versatile as the Swiss Army Knife

Microblogging's greatest strength is in its ease of use. There are a number of ways that you can create a microblogging post:

• Using the microblogging application
• By E-Mail
• Using instant messenger software
• Text messaging from your cell phone

A number of add-ons and extra functions have been created that make microblogging incredibly powerful and flexible. You can use some of these add-ons to link your regular blog to your microblog. The link to your latest blog entry can be sent automatically to your microblog. This is a great way to let your friends know that you've created a new blog post.

Small, but Mighty

There's no doubt that microblogging is helping to revolutionize the art of maintaining a personal weblog. Despite its limitations, microblogging's flexibility and ease of use is making it a big hit on the Web. Who knows: years from now, microblogging may be as commonplace as the cell phone or the iPod.