Here is an article about Twitter that was in the Wall Street Journal Today.
Birds of a Feather Twitter Together
Social-Networking Service Connects Followers, Not Friends, on PCs and Mobile Phones
If you’ve heard of Twitter but don’t exactly know what it is or how it works, you’re in good company. In the past two months a bunch of my friends, ranging in age from early 20s to late 30s, have asked me about Twitter — or Tweeter, as one person accidentally called it.
To clear things up, I’ve put together a basic Twitter guide that explains how to use it, Twitter lingo, privacy options, mobile applications that can be used with the service and problems that it has. Let’s get started.
Twitter limits social-networking updates to 140 characters or less. The service is surprisingly useful, but leaves room for improvement.
hat is it? In short, Twitter is a free social-networking tool that keeps people connected with one another and with sources of information. Twitter users submit updates about whatever they’re currently doing, and these updates cannot exceed 140 text-based characters.
Lingo: Twitter is the name of the service. The term twittering describes the activity of updating a Twitter account. A tweet is an individual Twitter update. Twitterers are people who use the service.
Followers, not Friends: Social-networking sites like Facebook and MySpace use the term “friend” to refer to people who are connected with one another, but Twitterers can simply follow one another’s messages by finding a person’s username and selecting a “Follow” option. This alerts the person that you’re following them, and they can reciprocally choose to follow you, or not.
Why use it? While some people primarily use Twitter to post updates about their activities or comments on the news, I use the service more as a follower, allowing me to see quick snippets of news as it occurs. Most tweets are written by real people, while others, such as updates from news organizations that you’ve selected, are automatically generated. Many tweets include the addresses of Web sites with relevant articles that tell readers more on a topic.
Where is it? Twitter works on your Web browser at Twitter.com, where user updates appear in a simple list form as they are submitted. After you’ve signed up and started following other people, those people’s updates, or tweets, will appear when you log onto Twitter.com using a username and password.
Twitter also works on mobile phones, where the 140-character limit allows messages to be sent and received via SMS text messaging. Tweets can also be sent and received via email. Users with smartphones like BlackBerrys or iPhones can use one of the many popular mobile applications for accessing Twitter, which offer much richer options than simple SMS does; I’ll get into these later.
Privacy: Unlike other social-networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter isn’t focused on holding and sharing personal information about its members. Indeed, the service operates with a majority (80%, according to the company) of users opting to keep their updates public, that is, follow-able by anyone, without permission. This openness encourages people to follow one another or to see who others are already following, and then follow the same people.
However, users can opt to protect their updates, meaning they must grant permission for others to follow them. If you’d like to sign up for Twitter, but aren’t comfortable putting your first and/or last name on the site, you don’t have to; instead, just tell others your username.
Twitter Page Personalization: Each user has a Twitter page showing all of his or her updates, or tweets. (Mine is twitter.com/kabster728, and you can follow me.) This page also shows the number of people a user follows, how many people follow her and how many total updates she has posted.
Twitterers can customize their Twitter page by uploading a photo to be used as the background. The icon representing each user can also be personalized, and this is important because it appears beside that person’s tweets on Twitter.com, where followers recognize and appreciate its familiarity. Some people, including me, use pictures of themselves as their icons, while others use random shots.
Apps/Clients: Twitter works on any browser, and will also work on a mobile browser. If you have a mobile device like the BlackBerry or iPhone, you can jazz up the experience by downloading a third-party app like TwitterFon, TwitterBerry, Tweetie or Twitteriffic. Twittervision, another mobile app, plots points on maps to show where tweets originated. Desktop clients also abound, including Twhirl and TweetDeck. Twitterfeed will set your blog to automatically post content to Twitter.
@Replies, Direct Messages: Each tweet that appears in your Twitter feed can be replied to using a shortcut arrow that appears beside the tweet, and these responses to tweets are called @Replies. So if JoeSchmo tweets to say he saw the new James Bond movie and hated it, you can reply to this with a tweet of your own that says, “@JoeSchmo I still adore Daniel Craig.” These @Replies appear for everyone to see, and must start with @ plus the username of whomever you’re responding to.
Direct Messages differ from @Replies because they can be sent only between people who are following one another. These messages aren’t posted publicly. They appear on your Twitter.com page in a right-side section labeled Direct Messages and will also be sent to your mobile device if you have one registered with Twitter.
Favorites: If you read a tweet that you really like, you can save it as a favorite by selecting a small star beside the tweet, thus adding it to a Favorites section on your homepage. Anyone can see anyone else’s Favorites, regardless of whether or not they’re following one another.
Problems: Twitter’s bare-bones approach gets to the point quickly, display ing tweets in a simple, quick-read format. But the site is lacking in many areas. It used to enable searching for people on Twitter, but that capability is currently down. Now, to search for friends on Twitter, you must upload your email contacts from a Web-based mail service. The company says it plans to have people-search working again by the end of the year. Meanwhile, search.twitter.com enables keyword or location searches.
Twitter lacks the ability to sort tweets according to what the user wants. If I just want to see tweets from real people and not those that are automatically generated, I’m out of luck. Same goes if I want to keep certain friends’ tweets in a prominent place on my homepage; Twitter has no way of doing this.
Twitter users aren’t notified when someone responds to their tweet with an @Reply. I recently happened to look at @Replies on my Twitter homepage and found three from people who follow me (I don’t follow them).
If you’re adding a Web address to a tweet and the characters in the URL take up too much space, Twitter will automatically use TinyURL behind the scenes to shrink your long link into a shorter one when you post your tweet. But this works only if you have enough remaining characters in your tweet to fit the long20version of your link. A built-in TinyURL converter on the page would help immensely.
Twitter says it’s working to make @Replies more effective. It also says it plans to do more with filtering and sorting, so that the Twitter interface is more useful. In the meantime, Twitter does a good job of giving people simplified news about others and the world around them. If you’re often in a rush, Twitter can be a great resource for fast information.
—Edited by Walter S. Mossberg
Hii ni kwa sababu ya makala ya Twitter iliyochapishwa katika jarida la Wall Street Journal leo. Twitter Pamoja: Huduma ya Mitandao ya Jamii Inaunganisha Wafuasi, Si Marafiki, kwenye PC na Simu za Mkono Ikiwa umesikia juu ya Twitter lakini hujui hasa ni nini au jinsi inavyofanya kazi, uko katika kampuni nzuri. Katika miezi miwili iliyopita, kundi la marafiki wangu, kuanzia miaka ya 20 hadi 30, wameniuliza juu ya Twitter au Tweeter, kama mtu mmoja aliiita kwa bahati mbaya. Ili kuondoa wasiwasi, tumeandaa mwongozo wa msingi wa Twitter ambao unaelezea jinsi ya kutumia, lugha ya Twitter, chaguzi za faragha, programu za rununu ambazo zinaweza kutumika na huduma na matatizo ambayo ina. Hebu kuanza. Twitter imeweka kikomo cha wahusika 140 au chini. Huduma ni ya kushangaza muhimu, lakini inaacha nafasi ya kuboresha. Je, ni kofia? Twitter ni mtandao wa kijamii wa bure ambao unawaunganisha watu na vyanzo vya habari. Watumiaji wa Twitter huwasilisha habari kuhusu kile wanachofanya kwa sasa, na habari hizo haziwezi kuzidi herufi 140 za maandishi. Twitter ni jina la huduma. Neno twittering linaelezea shughuli ya kusasisha akaunti ya Twitter. Tweet ni moja ya tweets ya kibinafsi. Twitter ni moja ya huduma za kijamii ambazo watumiaji wa mtandao huu hutumia. "Wanafunzi, sio Marafiki: Tovuti za mitandao ya kijamii kama Facebook na MySpace hutumia neno ""rafiki"" kurejelea watu ambao wameunganishwa na kila mmoja, lakini watumiaji wa Twitter wanaweza tu kufuata ujumbe wa kila mmoja kwa kupata jina la mtumiaji wa mtu na kuchagua chaguo la ""Follow.""" Hii inawashauri mtu kwamba wewe ni kufuata yao, na wanaweza kwa mwingiliano kuchagua kukufuata, au la. Kwa nini utumie njia hiyo? Wakati watu wengine hutumia Twitter hasa kuchapisha habari kuhusu shughuli zao au maoni juu ya habari, mimi hutumia huduma zaidi kama mfuasi, ikiniwezesha kuona vipande vya habari vya haraka wakati zinatokea. Tweets nyingi zimeandikwa na watu halisi, wakati wengine, kama vile updates kutoka mashirika ya habari kwamba umechagua, ni moja kwa moja yanayotokana. Tweets nyingi hutia ndani anwani za tovuti zenye makala hususa ambazo huwaambia wasomaji mengi zaidi juu ya habari fulani. Iko wapi? Twitter inafanya kazi kwenye kivinjari chako cha wavuti kwenye Twitter.com, ambapo sasisho za watumiaji zinaonekana katika fomu rahisi ya orodha zinapotumwa. Baada ya kujiandikisha na kuanza kufuata watu wengine, updates hizo watu, au tweets, itaonekana wakati wewe kuingia kwenye Twitter.com kutumia jina la mtumiaji na nenosiri. Twitter pia inafanya kazi kwenye simu za mkononi, ambapo kikomo cha herufi 140 inaruhusu ujumbe kupelekwa na kupokea kupitia ujumbe wa maandishi ya SMS. Tweets pia inaweza kutumwa na kupokea kupitia barua pepe. Watumiaji wenye simu mahiri kama vile Blackberry au iPhone wanaweza kutumia moja ya programu nyingi maarufu za rununu kwa ufikiaji wa Twitter, ambazo hutoa chaguzi tajiri zaidi kuliko SMS rahisi; Nitaingia katika hizi baadaye. Faragha: Tofauti na tovuti nyingine za mitandao ya kijamii kama vile Facebook, Twitter haijazingatia kuhifadhi na kushiriki habari za kibinafsi kuhusu wanachama wake. Kwa kweli, huduma hiyo inafanya kazi na idadi kubwa (kwa mujibu wa kampuni) ya watumiaji wanaochagua kuweka sasisho zao za umma, ambayo ni, kufuatilia na mtu yeyote, bila ruhusa. Uwazi huu unahimiza watu kufuata kila mmoja au kuona ni nani wengine tayari wanafuata, na kisha kufuata watu hao hao. Hata hivyo, watumiaji wanaweza kuchagua kulinda updates zao, maana lazima kutoa ruhusa kwa wengine kufuata yao. Kama ungependa kujiandikisha kwa Twitter, lakini si starehe kuweka jina lako la kwanza na au la mwisho kwenye tovuti, huna kufanya hivyo; badala yake, tu kuwaambia wengine jina lako la mtumiaji. Twitter: Kila mtumiaji ana ukurasa wa Twitter unaoonyesha updates zake zote. "Kama unavyoona, Twitter ni ""Kabster728"" na unaweza kuifuatilia kwa urahisi." Ukurasa huu pia unaonyesha idadi ya watu mtumiaji anafuata, ni watu wangapi wanamfuata na ni updates ngapi za jumla amezichapisha. Twitterers wanaweza kubadili ukurasa wao wa Twitter kwa kupakia picha kutumika kama background. Icon inayowakilisha kila mtumiaji pia inaweza kuboreshwa, na hii ni muhimu kwa sababu inaonekana kando ya tweets za mtu huyo kwenye Twitter.com, ambapo wafuasi wanatambua na kuthamini ukaribu wake. Watu fulani, kutia ndani mimi, hutumia picha zao wenyewe kuwa alama zao, huku wengine wakitumia picha zisizo za kawaida. Twitter: Twitter inafanya kazi kwenye kivinjari chochote, na pia inafanya kazi kwenye kivinjari cha rununu. Ikiwa una simu ya mkononi kama vile BlackBerry au iPhone, unaweza kufurahisha uzoefu kwa kupakua programu ya mtu wa tatu kama TwitterPhone, TwitterBerry, Tweetie au Twitteriffic. Twitter, programu nyingine ya simu, huonyesha alama kwenye ramani ili kuonyesha mahali ambapo tweets zilitoka. Wateja wa desktop pia ni wengi, ikiwa ni pamoja na Twhirl na TweetDeck. Twitter itasababisha blogi yako kuchapisha yaliyomo kwenye Twitterfeed moja kwa moja. @Jibu: Kila tweet inayoonekana kwenye mtiririko wako wa Twitter inaweza kujibu kwa kutumia mshale wa njia ya mkato unaoonekana kando ya tweet, na majibu haya kwa tweets huitwa @Jibu. "Kama Joe Schmo tweeted kwamba aliona filamu mpya ya James Bond na kuchukia, unaweza kujibu hii na tweet yako mwenyewe ambayo inasema, ""Joe Schmo, bado ninaabudu Daniel Craig"" @ replies hizi zinaonekana kwa kila mtu kuona, na lazima kuanza na @ pamoja na jina la mtumiaji wa mtu yeyote unayemjibu." Ujumbe wa moja kwa moja hutofautiana na @Replies kwa sababu zinaweza kutumwa tu kati ya watu ambao wanafuatana. Ujumbe huu haupakuliwi hadharani. "Hizi zinaonekana kwenye ukurasa wako wa Twitter katika sehemu ya kulia iliyoitwa ""Ujumbe wa moja kwa moja"" na pia itatumwa kwa kifaa chako cha rununu ikiwa una moja iliyosajiliwa na Twitter." "Tweet Favorites: Ikiwa umesoma tweet ambayo unapenda sana, unaweza kuihifadhi kama ""Mapenzi"" kwa kuchagua nyota ndogo kando ya tweet, na hivyo kuiongeza kwenye sehemu ya ""Mapenzi"" kwenye ukurasa wako wa nyumbani." Mtu yeyote anaweza kuona Favorites ya mtu mwingine, bila kujali kama wao ni kufuatia kila mmoja. Matatizo: Njia ya Twitter ya mifupa ya wazi hupata uhakika haraka, kuonyesha tweets katika muundo rahisi, wa kusoma haraka. Lakini tovuti hiyo inakosa katika maeneo mengi. Ilitumika kuwezesha utafutaji wa watu kwenye Twitter, lakini uwezo huo kwa sasa ni chini. Sasa, kutafuta marafiki kwenye Twitter, lazima upakishe mawasiliano yako ya barua pepe kutoka kwa huduma ya barua pepe ya mtandao. Kampuni hiyo inasema inapanga kuwa na watu-kutafuta kazi tena mwishoni mwa mwaka. Wakati huo huo, search.twitter.com inaruhusu maneno muhimu au utafutaji wa eneo. Twitter haina uwezo wa kupanga tweets kulingana na kile mtumiaji anataka. Kama mimi tu wanataka kuona tweets kutoka watu halisi na si wale ambao ni moja kwa moja yanayotokana, mimi ni nje ya bahati. Vivyo hivyo inakwenda kama nataka kuweka baadhi ya marafiki 'tweets katika mahali maarufu juu ya homepage yangu; Twitter haina njia ya kufanya hivyo. Watumiaji wa Twitter hawajulishwi wakati mtu anajibu tweet yao na @Reply. Hivi karibuni nilipata kuangalia @Replies kwenye ukurasa wangu wa nyumbani wa Twitter na kupata tatu kutoka kwa watu wanaonifuata (mimi siwafuati). Ikiwa unaongeza anwani ya wavuti kwenye tweet na herufi katika URL inachukua nafasi nyingi, Twitter itatumia TinyURL moja kwa moja nyuma ya pazia kupunguza kiungo chako kirefu kuwa kifupi wakati unapochapisha tweet yako. Hii inafanya kazi tu ikiwa una herufi za kutosha zilizobaki katika tweet yako ili kuendana na toleo la 20 la kiungo chako. Jengo-katika TinyURL converter kwenye ukurasa kusaidia sana. Twitter inasema inafanya kazi ya kufanya @Replies iwe na ufanisi zaidi. Twitter pia imesema kuwa inakusudia kufanya zaidi na kuchuja na kupanga, ili kiolesura cha Twitter kiwe na manufaa zaidi. Twitter inafanya kazi nzuri ya kuwapa watu habari rahisi kuhusu wengine na ulimwengu unaowazunguka. Kama wewe ni mara nyingi katika haraka, Twitter inaweza kuwa rasilimali kubwa kwa habari ya haraka. <unk>Ilichapishwa na Walter S. Mossberg