Maybe you’re really busy. Maybe you don’t have much to say. Or maybe you’re just lazy. Not a problem. This free service works by letting you broadcast a group text message to your {fiends’ mobile phones from either your own phone, an instant message or an online form at twitter, com. All your notes are then stored and displayed on your personal profile page on the site, which includes links to your friends’ Twitter pages, a thumbnail picture of your choice, and a short bio. All this is what the new service Twitter can bring you. Just remember to keep it short: posts are limited to !40 characters, and the topic is, invariably, “What are you doing?”
More often than not, it turns out, Twitter’s 100,00 members--twice as many as it had just a month ago, according to Twitter business development director Biz Stone--are simply killing time. Even Presidential hopeful John Edwards is on it, although he seems to be the only one thinking about more than lunch. As I type this, Caroline is mulling over some Girl Scout cookies, Ian Hocking is “waiting for Jessica to arrive so we can eat!” and Hlantz is “having a nice cup of Soft Starmint tea.”
The chatter (閑話) about Twitter turned into a virtual roar two weeks ago during the South by Southwest Multimedia Festival in Austin, Texas, when the barebones service owned by Blogger founder Evan Williams, 34, was named the best blogging tool and attendees used it to meet up at parties. Nevertheless, Twitter has been the top term on blog search engine Technorati for the past two weeks.
Plenty of people would happily have Twitter silenced, rather than tolerate the beeping alert for yet another new text message. But I’m betting that Twitter will get a lot noisier before netizens move on to the next new thing. We cyberjunkies need a new thrill, and what is better than a service like Twitter that combines social networking, blogging and texting? And if you don’t like it, well, in the words of one Twit from San Francisco, “I’m so sick to death of Twitter-haters. If you don’t like it, why waste your time writing, reading, or talking about it?”
1. This text is intended to __________.
A. point out the virtues and faults of Twitter B. tell people how to use Twitter to communicate
C. give a general outline of Twitter. Com D. introduce a new and easy way of instant communication
2. According to the text, Twitter is designed mainly for the purpose of ___________.
A. promoting products and services B. talking about small daily things
C. discussing serious social matters D. attracting voters for presidential election
3. We know from the text that Twitter may be superior to Blogger in that ________.
A. it limits each user’s texting under 140 words B. it saves users’ time and thinking
C. it can be easily operated through users’ mobile phones
D. it is newly invented by Blogger owner Evan Williams
4. By quoting one Twit from San Francisco, the author implies that ___________.
A. like it or not, Twitter will be accepted by more and more people
B. if one doesn’t like Twitter, he/she can choose not to mention it
C. writing, reading and talking about Twitter is a waste of time
D. twitter users naturally have a strong dislike for non-Twitter users
