Twitter

Twitter

300px Screenshot of Twitter's homepage
Type of site	Social networking service
Available in	Multilingual
Owner	Twitter, Inc.
Created by	Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, Evan Williams
Commercial	Yes
Registration	Required
Launched	March 21, 2006
Current status	Active

Twitter is an online social networking service and microblogging service that enables users to send and read short 280-character messages called "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and retweet tweets, but unregistered users can only read them. Users access Twitter through its website interface, through Short Message Service (SMS) or its mobile-device application software ("app"). Twitter, Inc. is based in San Francisco, California, and has more than 25 offices around the world.

History

Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams and launched in July of that year. The service rapidly gained worldwide popularity. In 2012, more than 100 million users posted 340 million tweets a day, and the service handled an average of 1.6 billion search queries per day. In 2013, it was one of the ten most-visited websites and has been described as "the SMS of the Internet". As of 2018, Twitter had more than 321 million monthly active users.

Features

Tweets

Tweets are publicly visible by default, but senders can restrict message delivery to just their followers. Users can tweet via the Twitter website, compatible external applications (such as for smartphones), or by Short Message Service (SMS) available in certain countries.

Content

Users can post and retweet tweets, which may contain photos, videos, links, and text. These messages are posted to your profile, sent to your followers, and are searchable on Twitter search.

Hashtags

The use of hashtags—words or phrases prefixed with the "#" symbol—is also supported by Twitter, allowing users to categorize tweets and track trending topics.

Impact

Twitter has been used for a variety of purposes in many industries and scenarios. For example, it has been used to organize protests, sometimes referred to as "Twitter revolutions", which include the 2011 Egyptian revolution. It has also been used extensively in marketing and public relations, among other things.

Controversies

Twitter has faced criticism and controversy for its role in the spread of misinformation, hate speech, and abuse. Efforts to combat these issues have included algorithmic changes, policy updates, and user bans, which have been met with mixed reactions from the public and the media.

See also

• Social media
• Internet censorship
• Digital communication