Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users' updates known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length which are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them (known as followers). Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow anybody to access them.

According to some of the national media quoted by Twitter.com, The New York Times calls Twitter "one of the fastest-growing phenomena on the Internet."  TIME Magazine says, "Twitter is on its way to becoming the next killer app," and Newsweek noted that "Suddenly, it seems as though all the world's a-twitter."  One may wonder why a Twitter user would post his daily activities as they occur; Twitter explains it this way:  “Why?  Because even basic updates are meaningful to family members, friends, or colleagues — especially when they’re timely.”

Since messages and other postings are intended to appear as text messages on cell phones as well as on a webpage, individual postings are limited to 140 characters, the maximum length of a text message   allowed on most cell phone systems.   

 You can receive a new tweet as a text message on a  cell phone, as an RSS feed on a computer, or as a email message, or by simply viewing Postings which can be made or received by computer, cell phone text message, Blackberry, or other communications device.  Postings can also be received on any newsreader that uses the RSS news feed format. my Twitter webpage.

Twitter makes it very easy to find friends who also Twitter.  By clicking on the “Find People” icon, a window is opened that says “Find people.  Follow them”.  To locate friends on Twitter, you may chose to allow Twitter to access your email address book to determine if any of your current correspondents are on Twitter.  Twitter can access (but only with your express permission) address books on Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, Hotmail, and MSN.  It will quickly scan the online address book, and match any email addresses in the address book against the millions already in the Twitter database.  Twitter states that it does not save the email addresses and passwords, and does not send out emails to those located without express permission to do so. You may also use the “Find on Twitter” feature to enter your last name to see if any of your relatives are on Twitter, and add them to my friends list.  Just as a lark, enter the names of some of your elected officials, and you will find that several of them do have Twitter accounts.  If you want to invite friends by personal email, you can enter their email addresses in the “Invite by Email” box, and Twitter will send them an invitation.

Now, how do you make Twitter useful? Twitter is great for keeping track of one news niche you care about. Useful Twitter members are CNN, CNNBRK, 8NYTIMES, PCMAG and many others, use this as a RSS feed.

Get better customer service. You may get more attention from companies through Twitter then through normal customer service channels. The next time you have a customer complaint, just Google the company and Twitter i.e. xyztwitter.

Ask for help. Twitter is useful in getting answer to questions and asking for favors, Examples: ‘can anyone help me move on Saturday? Or how much ram do I need to run Vista?

Keep up with friends. “I am going shopping Friday anyone that wishes to join me , meet me by at the back door of Penny’s countryside at 10:00am. One message at a time, knowing who is sick or who dented their car is dull, But in total , by skimming your Twitter feed you will get a sixth sense about what is going on in your circle of friends