The FiFi Report 245

Twitter is HOT!
“ON JAN. 15, one of the first reports of US Airways Flight 1549’s emergency landing in the Hudson River was made by Florida businessman Janis Krums: “There’s a plane in the Hudson. I’m on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy.” Krums didn’t leave it as a voice-mail message, nor did he just text a few close friends: He broadcast the note to his Twitter followers, who then relayed it, screen to screen, all over the world.
Twitter, the two-year-old Web service, has become explosively popular. You can fire off tiny messages - limited to 140 characters - from your computer and cellphone, wherever you are, and have them appear on the screens of whoever is keeping track of them.
Twitter is already a productive source of new vocabulary. The messages are “tweets”; the people signed up to get them are your followers - or tweeple, or tweeps (although there are people pushing twerps and twits as the proper nomenclature). The Twittersphere (or Twitterverse) includes both the Twitterati (or Tweetstars) who have lots and lots of followers, and those who have just a few. It even includes tworkers - people whose jobs involve using Twitter. ”
from the TheBostonGlobe.com