Article,
Why We Twitter: Understanding Microblogging
(2008)
Abstract
Microblogging is a new form of communication in which
users can describe their current status in short posts distributed
by instant messages, mobile phones, email or the
Web. Twitter, a popular microblogging tool has seen a lot
of growth since it launched in October, 2006. In this paper,
we present our observations of the microblogging phenomena
by studying the topological and geographical properties
of Twitter’s social network. We find that people use microblogging
to talk about their daily activities and to seek
or share information. Finally, we analyze the user intentions
associated at a community level and show how users with
similar intentions connect with each other.
