micropost

A brief post (or series of posts) to a personal blog on a microblogging Web site such as Twitter. People who are subscribed to your microblog can read microposts online or request that updates are delivered in real time to their desktop via IM or sent to a mobile device via SMS text message.

The appeal of all of this is the immediacy and portability. Because microposts are so brief (typically 140 – 200 characters), a microblogger can update his or her microblog often enough to keep readers informed as to whatever they're doing (commonly known as twittering).

Thought of as a convergence of several types of "presence" technology, Twitter users have come up with new terms to differentiate the practice. Posts are called "tweets," and the community is known as the "twitosphere." Posts submitted can't be edited or deleted; posts that are regretted are called "mistweets." The Twitter site includes a simple API (application-programming interface) that twitterers, as they call themselves, can use to create their own applications. One such application, for example, a mash-up with Google Maps called Twittervision, shows users the geographical location of posters. Hey, GFI!