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This weekend, I finally created a Twitter account. I’ve known about Twitter for I guess going on two years, but this is the first time I’ve actually ever created an account. And so, now I’m in the process of playing with it.

What is Twitter? Basically it’s a form of “micro-blogging”. Really micro. About 140 characters micro. You have your own homepage where you post updates called “tweets”, which look similar to blog posts. People can also subscribe to your Twitter page and follow all of the “tweets” that you post to your page. However, unlike blogging, you can also post tweets directly to other people on the Twitter network. So in a way Twitter can also be a form of conversation as well.

Like I mentioned earlier, your posts or “tweets” can only be about 140 characters long. So there is no long drawn out posts on Twitter. Your messages are short and to the point (unlike this blog post). In your tweets you can tell people what you’re doing, post links to interesting things you’ve discovered, pretty much anything you can think of.

You can post updates in a couple different ways. You can log on to your account at twitter.com and submit your tweets there. You can also add your cell phone number to your account and update via text messaging. There’s also some software that you can download to your computer that allows you to post tweets and monitor the Twitter stream without having to go to the website. Right now I’m testing out twhirl and Twitterrific.

Plus, if you have a Jott account, you can post to Twitter by calling Jott and recording a message to your Twitter account. The Jott service transcribes your voice message and posts it to your Twitter stream. It even provides a link where people can hear the actual voice message that you leave. If you’re not familiar with Jott, check out the previous post I did about it.

I’m still in the process of playing around with it…but I can tell you that it’s pretty interesting so far. I’m already thinking of a couple useful applications for it. So stay tuned. Meanwhile, check out Twitter…and if you’re feeling adventurous open an account (it’s free!). If you’re already on Twitter, check out my Twitter profile and send me a tweet!.