Twitter
(the digital definition) is "a free social messaging tool that lets people
stay connected through brief text message updates up to 140 characters in
length called tweets."
Why Was Twitter Invented
Twitter
came about out as a result of both a perceived need and timing. Smart phones
were relatively new whenTwitter was first conceived of by inventor Jack Dorsey,
who wanted to use his cell phone to send text messages to a service and have
the message distributed to all his friends. At the time, most of Dorsey's
friend's didn't have text-enabled cell phones and spent a lot of time on their
home computers. Twitter was born of a need to enable text messaging to have a
cross platform capacity, work on phone, computers, and other devices.
Background - Before Twitter, There Was Twttr
After
working solo on the concept for a few years, Jack Dorsey brought his idea to
the company that was then employing him as a web designer called Odeo. Odeo had
been started as a podcasting company by Noah Glass and others; however, Apple Computers
had launched a podcasting platform called iTunes that was to dominate the
market, making podcasting a poor choice as a venture for Odeo.
Jack Dorsey brought his new ideas to Noah Glass and
convinced Glass of its do-ability.
On February 2006, Glass and Dorsey (along with developer
Florian Weber) presented the project to the company. The project, initially
called Twttr (named by Noah Glass), was "a system where you could send a
text to one number and it would be broadcasted out to all your desired
contacts".
The Twttr
project got the green light by Odeo and by March 2006, a working prototype was
available; by July 2006, the Twttr
Twitter
(the digital definition) is "a free social messaging tool that lets people
stay connected through brief text message updates up to 140 characters in
length called tweets."
The First Tweet
The first tweet occurred on March 21, 2006, at 9:50
PM Pacific Standard Time when Jack Dorsey tweeted "just setting up my twttr".
