“Twitter, good or bad?”

There is little doubt the internet has drastically and permanently affected how the communication sector operates. There are now more methods for people to keep in touch through services on the net than was ever offered in the past. The number web sites based on this social networking model is always growing. Such is the success and affect these social internet communities have on people, they have become a necessity to the functioning of their daily lives. How up to date and knowledgeable are you with sites like Twitter?

This social networking dependency has seen many people wanting to share their lives with anyone prepared to be their audience. Twitter fantastically provides  quick and easy communication with friends and family members.

Before anyone can make use of Twitter, intending members need to make a personal profile for their account. Twitter was designed to publish and alert others of updates or short messages quickly. These twitter alerts are called "tweets" and  are text based of 140 characters in length. Not many people know you can even use a cell phone to send these updates. The updates are sent to followers from  your account user name who choose to subscribe to that Twitter member just as you can choose who you subscribe too and follow.

But is twitter a good to bad thing? Well, that is the question partly answered by its millions of users from all the world who dedicate their time and energy to the site. For the first half of 2009, Twitter ranked third among the most beloved and most visited social network websites, MySpace and Facebook who have been massive successes in their own right. In March 09, after many previous months of increasing traffic, unique hits to Twitter accelerated to grow 131 percent to 9.3 million unique visitors. Success thanks to hollywood celeb “tweeters” and more widespread offline media focus, the site ranked as the fastest expanding web property overall online.

The simplicity of Twitter is the reason for its extreme appeal among people of all different age groups. Users are free to choose how they can receive tweets - by means of RSS, SMS, mobile Web, etc. Specialist web tools such as Twitterific and Tweetie are also popular in helping users keep track of their twittering activities. By means of application programming interface (APIs), you can easily update your profile page without the need to enter the actual Twitter site.

Multiple people use Twitter – actors, musicians, professionals and even political identities. Just about everyone knows that American President Barack Obama used Twitter for his campaigns. Well, in addition to the President,other celebrities such as Oprah, Lance Armstrong, 50 cent and the Jonas Brothers are avid fans of the site. Large companies use the site to promote their products, information updates and client support such as Dell, Starbucks, TheHomeDepot, Ford and Samsung. Even Microsoft, although belatedly, have decided to establish a big presence on Twitter with at last count some 18 genuine accounts which allow consumers and staff to communicate.

Twitter maybe far from a perfect all in one solution but it has many good things to offer at absolutely no cost to its members. No doubt twitters creators will also continue to further develop this social medium which can only further enhance its value for everyone. Go on over to Twitter, try it out now and create your own profile page.