| When Barack Obama, the elected President of the | | | | application (sad, I know) it was alive with Tweets |
| United States of America, last posted on Twitter on | | | | about the earthquake in China. Most of them were |
| November 5 he had over 90,000 followers, come the | | | | from the celebrated technology blogger Robert Scoble, |
| New Year though that number had grown to over | | | | who is famous, perhaps notorious, for receiving a |
| 150,000 – despite the man not posting a word since | | | | Twitter message every second of the day.” |
| election day! | | | | It has been used not just as a news service, but also |
| It seems like everybody is “Tweeting” - even | | | | as a means of fundraising, covering live events and |
| the most powerful man in the world. | | | | campaigning. |
| NASA, 10 Downing Street, BBC News, Steve Jobs | | | | As a news distribution system, it first came into its |
| from Apple corporation and John Cleese are all happy | | | | own in the autumn of 2007 during the seasonal |
| “Tweeters” and post regularly. Between them | | | | Carolinian fire outbreak. “Tweets” were sent |
| alone they have over 40,000 followers on Twitter – | | | | around users and filtered out into the wider net |
| users who receive every one of their regular posts. | | | | community. It was news from dozens, if not hundreds |
| There are over 4 million users on Twitter with these 4 | | | | of people on the ground where the action was taking |
| million people sending nearly a quarter of a million | | | | place. |
| messages between themselves every month. | | | | As a means of distributing information, NASA grabbed |
| For a service that started in the Autumn of 2006 this | | | | hold of the new media application and used it to |
| really is astonishing growth, and it's all the more | | | | distribute the latest updates about its recent |
| amazing when you consider that a post on Twitter | | | | exploration to Mars using the Phoenix Mars Lander. |
| can consist of no more than 140 characters. | | | | Amazingly, the world was first alerted to the presence |
| Links to other website are allowed, but considering the | | | | of water on the red planet, not on the BBC, Fox New |
| craze for Flash-dominated, Javascript-heavy, all-signing, | | | | or CNN, but on Twitter! |
| all-dancing websites, Twitter's growth is extremely | | | | With this exciting development it was only a matter of |
| surprising. | | | | time before a press release service began using |
| For its very limited and minimalist approach, the service | | | | Twitter to distribute items, and free press release |
| came in for a barrage of abuse when it first came to | | | | service Press Release 001 has stepped up to the |
| the attention of the world's bloggers. A couple of | | | | plate. |
| years down the line, and nearly all those bloggers that | | | | Launched on January 1, all the major categories of |
| initially criticised it now have their own accounts and | | | | Press Release 001 are now also transmitted to the |
| are “Tweeting” like a happy canary. | | | | world via Twitter, although, of course, in a condensed |
| Even established BBC journalist Rory Cellan-Jones | | | | version of no more than 140 characters. |
| declared his admiration for the application in May 2008: | | | | It's too early to tell yet just how popular this new type |
| “I was beginning to think Twitter - the micro-blogging | | | | of free press release service will be, but if it is anything |
| service that's all the rage amongst the technorati - | | | | as popular as other news services then it will surely |
| was just another fad for people who want to share | | | | play a part in helping to change the strategy of online |
| too much of their rather dull lives. Until this morning. | | | | public relations. |
| “When I logged on to my desktop Twitter | | | | |