This issue has been cropping in my mind ever since I got myself registered to websites like facebook, orkut, twitter, and linkedin. There is so much scope of putting up all information about yourself, right from educational qualifications to which movies and songs you like, and that is mind boggling. Not to forget the images and videos which can elaborately depict your vacations, day to day activities and likes and dislikes. Facebook also has an option to add links from different websites which can be viewed by friends and acquaintances alike. To top it all, there is an option of updating your status message time and again which is so very fashionable as loads of discussions happen on topics such as “I am getting late for office”.

Recently, someone asked me to write an article about ‘Twitter Fan buttons’ which that guy was promoting on his website. I had to refuse the task because even after much research I could not find a way to elaborate the topic. However, in the process, I realized how this twitter thing is picking up over the Internet and how some people are even labeling it the next best thing after blogging. So what is twitter exactly?

Twitter is a social networking utility which keeps you connected in real-time with colleagues, friends, and family. It is a free service as of now. You will just have to register, and you can send and receive updates to and from your network. These updates are in the form of text-based messages up to 140 characters known as ‘tweets’. The length of the messages is a unique selling proposition as far as the twitter owners are concerned. The logic is that most of the times people do not have much time to write a blog post about something they feel strongly about or just want to share with others. Sometimes, they may not have the required skills to blog. Therefore, these tweets are a convenient way to update others about yourself or receive updates from others.

These days social networking sites like myspace, facebook and orkut are extremely popular not only amongst youngsters but also amongst the elderly for the reasons sighted as dating, networking or building activity partners but the reasons are far beyond these. Once you set up your identity on the Internet, one constantly struggles to improve it by hook or by crook! So an ugly man will put up an image of an actor or write things about himself which might not be true. People might create fake identities for dating purposes. On the other side sometimes, you get to meet old long lost friends on such sites which have settled in different sub continent. For me it is an excellent way to keep in touch with my friends and relatives.