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".