May issue.pdf - Wingspan

May 4, 2009lccc.wy.edu/wingspanfeaturesWi n g s pa n17Site starts fresh but lags behindThe userriendlyservice,tarted in 2006,akes life’s littlepdates easiero pass around;owever, certainompetitorsake this serviceeel like ahortcoming.By TravisShermanPhotography EditorKeeping everyoneyou knowupdated aboutdaily events can beas easy as picking upyour phone and pushinga few keys, butthe Internet makes iteasier with Twitter.In 2006, Twitterwas started in 2006as a side-project forpeople around theoffice to communicateshort blurbsabout their day butsoon became anInternet phenomenonafter it becamea public entity.Twitter allowsyou to set up a smallprofile, find peopleand record 140 characterupdates to yourprofile, and deliver towhoever is subscribedto your “tweets.”You have the optionto customizeyour profile as well,with a backgroundsuiting your personality,as well as finetuningthe web siteto your liking.Twitter’s maingoal is to make yourcomments simple,yet elegant, and allowsyou to expressyour mood in text,pictures and links towhatever else makesyou, well, you!Signing up for theservice is free, andfinding your favoritecelebrities and bestfriends on Twitter iseasy as well, so don’tworry about thehassle of having toknow all their informationwhen findingthem.Businesses andeven some charitableorganizationsare starting to maketheir way ontoTwitter, promotinga new product or anew cause to fightfor. Plus, Twitter hasannounced a wayfor your business tomake money usingits service, but nodate has been announcedon whenthis will be implemented.Something aboutTwitter bugs me,though. It has a servicethat allows youto create short blurbsand updates abouteveryday life, yet twoof the most popularsocial networkingsites on the Internetuse the same kind ofstructure that Twitteruses. I’m, of course,talking about Facebookand MySpace.To get the fulleffectiveness fromTwitter, you needsubscribers, orsimply put, peoplewatching yourupdates to see whatyou say about yourself.With MySpaceand Facebook, youhave your friend listalready established,and with their updateservices, youcan tell everyonewhat you’re thinkingabout right nowand, with MySpace,you can update yourmood, too.Twitter started offwith a fantastic idea,but when it camedown to it, MySpaceand Facebook werealready runningat full steam whenthey started, so it’sno surprise that thesocial networkingservices borrowedthe concept of updates.If you would liketo check out Twitter,feel free to. Itis a great way toexpress yourself in140 characters, andyou can track yourfavorite people andcelebrities, whereverthey are. But, if youalready have a Myspaceor Facebook account,don’t botherwith Twitter, becauseyou already haveyour own audience,and you can updateto them.