Tech10: How To Use Twitter

                       Twitter is a micro blogging website that has been recently made and is growing in population every day. It is ranked as the third most popular social networking site since 2009 and the fastest growing site of 2009 (Kazeniac, Andy). This website is similar to Myspace and Facebook but a bit different because it doesn't have as many features. Anyone can subscribe to Twitter as long as you have an email. People use twitter, to connect with friends and to let them know what you are doing.

Some features that Twitter has are:

• What are you doing?/ Tweets : This feature lets you post 140 character updates of what you are doing. Anyone who is following you can see what you wrote and they can reply back at you which you can only see it if you are following them. You can also set privacy settings so select which followers can view your tweets and who can't. Users can also receive updates on their phones if they subscribe to it (only standard rates apply).
• Followers/Following : This feature is just like adding friends. If you follow people then you can see their updates and page and if someone is following you then you can see what they're updates or what they are doing. You can find users using the find friends button on the top right of the page on your home page.
• @reply : This feature lets you reply back to other people on their posts but they can only see it if they are following you. 
• Profile Picture: You can have a profile picture so other users can see how you look like but its not that big. The maximum size is "700k. JPG, GIF, PNG." (Twitter / Picture).

1) "Twitter/Picture." Twitter. 27 May 2009.

    This website was useful because this is the website I'm researching on. It was useful because I got to explore the features on here.

2) Kazeniac, Andy. "Social Networks: Facebook Takes Over Top Spot, Twitter Climbs." 9 Feb. 2009. 27 May 2009.
        This website had rankings of social networks including Twitter. It showed how popular they are.

3) "Nielsen." 27 May 2009.
        This website rated Twitter as the most fastest growing social blogging site of 2009.

        Twitter was made to be a easy and simple social blogging site to use by people. It has similar settings and applications as other social blogging sites but they are more simplified so the users won't have a hard time using it.
        Twitter mainly revolves around Tweets. Tweets are 160 characters updates of what you are doing. Tweets are very similar to status updates on other websites such as facebook and myspace. It is really similar to facebook because both statuses are on top but its more visible on Twitter. On Myspace its even less visible because its on the side and smaller. Twitter has the best one because it's the most visible and easiest to use.

        Another feature that Twitter lets you have, is that you can follow or be followed by people. The only difference is between Tiwtter and Myspace/Facebook is that the other person doesn't have to accept for you to be their friend. I think that this is bad because on Twitter anyone and see your updates and you can't do anything about it. It's more safer on Facebook and Myspace because you have to approve who can see what you post. 

    In order for people to know who you are, Twitter allows you to have a profile picture. The only problem is that the picture is too small to actually see who it is. On facebook and myspace, the profile pictures are 20 times the size of the Twitter pictures and much better. Another problem on Twitter is that in order to upload a picture it has to have specific dimensions while on myspace and facebook you can put up any picture and then they will automatically change the pictures dimensions to fit in. This is bad because then the user has to go through all the trouble to change the dimensions just so they can upload it.
        
                The last feature that Twitter has is @ reply. This is a bad because the only way that the person can see the comment is if they go back and look at the recent updates. Sometimes they don't even notice it because they don't get any notification of a new comment. Facebook and Myspace is easier because it tells you if someone writes to you.

    Overall Twitter is an extremely easy website to use because all the features are simplified even though it might be less convenient but its less complicated then mysapce or facebook.