Jimmy Rogers
Department of Molecular and Microbiology
George Mason University

The Development of the Twitterverse

As stated before, the concept of the microblog is a simple one. Each user can submit an unlimited number of personal updates that are no longer than a standard mobile text message. The purpose of the length restriction is twofold. First, text messaging remains a major interface for microblogging and so mobile users should not be disadvantaged by the brevity of their messages. Second, the process of composing a complete thought in only 140 characters has turned into a veritable art form for many users.
A user account system, a textbox large enough to hold 140 characters, and some way of weaving it all together into a web interface are the only requirements to start a microblog. Many services, such as Facebook, have already added microblog functionality to their existing options. Even so, the dedicated microblogging companies like Twitter have taken all of the first steps in advancing the technology to the next level.

Initially, users primarily shared text with one another. They would let friends know where they were, who they were with, and other day-to-day minutia. The first real milestone occurred when users realized they could share links through Twitter. Top level domains (like Digg.com) were easily shared, but longer links, especially blog posts, which have notoriously long URLs, used up too many of the 140 characters allocated to each message. A new method for sharing links came about in the form of the “link shortener.”

Short links with unique codes on the end turned out to be the perfect medium for redirecting users to much longer URLs. These links, pioneered by TinyURL.com, allow tweets to contain not only text, but links to websites, images, and other complex media. This step, combined with Twitter’s built-in developer package (or API) and reliance on RSS, gave people playing with Twitter all the tools they would eventually need to expand Twitter beyond its original design.