I was thinking about all the Internet communication mediums this weekend - sites such as Facebook, Twitter and myspace - then I saw that there was an article about Twitter in yesterday’s news…  These sites have made it so easy to keep in touch with family, friends and colleagues.

The CEO/Finder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, was on the Oprah show recently, explaining how it all happened for Facebook. Mark founded Facebook with fellow computer science major students and his roommates, while he was a student at Harvard University. Website membership was initially limited to Harvard students, but was expanded to other colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League, and Stanford University. It later expanded further to include any university student, then high school students, and, finally, to anyone aged 13 and over. The website currently has more than 200 million active users worldwide. [ More about Facebook ]  [ More about Mark Zuckerberg ]

Twitter was created in 2006 by Jack Dorsey. It is sometimes described as the “SMS of the Internet”, as it provides the functionality—via its application programming interface (API)—for other desktop and web-based applications to send and receive short text messages. [ More about Twitter ]

Well, back to the point.  Although most people see these websites as a fun and social networking opportunity, they do have valuable communication possibilities for people otherwise cut off from other mediums.

As News24 has reported yesterday, the US Government has requested Twitter to delay maintenance plans in order to allow Iranians to communicate, while their government banned other media following elections.  The State Department official told reporters on the condition of anonymity that the Twitter service was all the more important because the Iranian government had shut down websites, cell phones, and newspapers. [ Full article ]  

Reading this I once again realised how we should appreciate and be thankful for the little things in life, even if it is just reading news or updating your status on Facebook…

Also in the news the past week:·        

• Microsoft sues over “clicking”
• Another Google Search Feature Abused
• New iPhone sold out pre-launch