Founded in 1996, Twitter.com has seen its ups and down in the technology community. Mirroring the Short Message Service (SMS), a tweet allows only maximum of 140 characters in one message.
Twitter has now become a a near-real time news conduit for the world. Does anyone remember when then Presidential Candidate Barack Obama was actively using Twitter on the campaign trail? He even utilized Twitter to announced his Vice-Presidential choice. That was back in 2008.
Also in 2008, Twitter became the de facto news medium in Mumbai attacks.
In January 2009, the first image of the downed US Airways Flight 1549 was transmitted through Twitter.
In June 2006 Twitter once again became the method of choice in communicating with countries outside Iran. Iranian government effectively cut off the communication pipelines to the world after allegation of fraud in the Iranian Presidential Election. Major news media were critized of failing to report the event in Iran. People were getting the news through Twitter instead of CNN, MSNBC, FOX News, etc.
Twitter has become an important news medium. Forget Ashton Kutcher and Oprah!
Twitter: Freedom of Information in One Hundred and Forty Characters or Less at a Time.