Microblogging is a broadcast medium in the form of blogging. A microblog differs from a traditional blog in that its content is typically smaller in both actual and aggregate file size. Microblogs "allow users to exchange small elements of content such as short sentences, individual images, or video links"
During the past few months, I’ve been observing some changes in the blogging behaviors of many of my friends. I’ve been referring to their behavior as microblogging. I thought I was onto something new but a quick Live search reveals that the term has been floating around for awhile (just when I thought I had invented a new term!). I couldn’t find anything that actually defined it, though, so I figured I’d give my notion of what it means, what I’ve been observing, and why it’s important.
What is it?
Microblogging is just what it sounds – it’s regularly publishing small pieces of content on the web. The best example of microblogging is Twitter (from the same guys that brought you old school pre-Google-acquisition Blogger and Odeo). Twitter is a nifty new service that allows you to create a microblog of small pieces of text that you can update from your mobile, IM, or via the Twitter site (for an example, here’s my Twitter).
However, I don’t believe that Twitter is the first (or only) form of microblogging. I’ve been observing this trend of micro-microcontent (many people think regular blogging is microcontent) in various forms – del.icio.us (when posting a small note along with a bookmark), flickr (when posting a bit of text along with a photo), Facebook status, and even adding a review on Yelp could be considered microblogging.
Thank!!!!!
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