4: How did Twitter come about?

What is Twitter?


Here is a brief description of what Twitter is :


- It is something like blogging, but in a SMS form.
- But it is real time updating of stuff.
- EG: people tweet about going to this place and next tweet (within the next 5 min) about how crowded the bus is, etc. 
- Some celebrities tweet about their daily lives, and their fans will "follow" them. This made the fans feel as if they are friend of celebrities. 
- However, some (like my friends and I, we) use it as a platform for us to gossip and rant. =x
- There is also a RT function ( Retweet ), meaning re-posting what your friends posted in twitter.


The History of Twitter

In 2006, it started out when Odeo ( a podcasting company,) realize the necessity to re-create and brainstorm new innovative ideas. It was then that Jack Dorsey came up with the concept of creatign SMS that let an user to text with a selective group of people/friends/acquaintances. 


FunFact #1 : Twitter was initially called "STATUS".( Later the group research meanigns of words and names, and decided on TWITTER, which they found apt.
FunFact #2 : The original product name was twttr ( not Twitter).

On March 21, 2006: 
The project started with Dorsey tweeted his first Twitter message at 12:50 PM (PST): "just setting up my twttr". This prototype for twitter was examined as an internal service for Odeo employees and opened to public in July 2006.

In October 2006: 
Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone and Evan Williams formed Obvious Corporation with other members from Odeo, and bought out Odeo from the investors and other shareholders. 


In April of 2007:
Twitter became it's own company.

Twitter really took off in 2007 when they started using a marketing plan to showcase streaming twitter messages on massive plasma screens at the South by Southwest festival. Shockingly, after the Southwest festival, twitter usage went from 20,000 tweets per day to 60,000. On top of that, during the event, Twitter  was recognized and won an award in the Blog category. Jack Dorsey also showed his gratitude to everyone in 140 characters.

Now:
Twitter has approximately 2.5 million users, with 20 million unique U.S. visitors in June 2009 and 628 million pageviews.


Feelings:
So while you are here reading this entry now, there loads of tweets being tweeted and if you do not have an account why not create one and join in the fun?!  :)

http://profilerehab.com/twitter-help/history_of_twitter

3 : How does Pay Pal work?

Fun Fact: According to Wikipedia :Michael Aldrich invented online shopping in 1979!


Fore-note : Do you know what is E-commerce?


It is basically doing business, or having business transaction using electronic system, the most recent ones is World Wide Web and the Internet. These are some medium of paying :

Having said these, PayPal is the world's most commonly used mean for online shopping!


For people who rarely do online shopping ( example, yours truly here.), you might be wondering what is the thing that calls PayPal? ( Actually this is what inspired me to do this entry.)

It is this medium , somewhat like a middleman who is in-charge of taking the money from you and passing it to the seller. The money are sent through emails when buyers select the option of paying via PayPal. Having 95% of the transaction done in eBay via PayPal, it is a trusted way of paying your purchases online.

So How does PayPal work?

It is a financial transaction broker that is online. It allows both the buyers and sellers to transfer money to each other via email, While at the same time, the confidentiality of the credit cards or any bank information are secured. It is as if PayPal is this middleman who hold the money . With its strong ethics in business transaction, it has gained the trust of both buyers and sellers, especially with guarantees that their bank information are kept confidential.

1st : Buyers and Sellers giving PayPal their credit card and bank information2nd: PayPal "blinds" Buyers and Sellers private bank info from each other.3rd: The money is transferred through emails.

In case you might be wondering is there any requirements for using PayPal. Actually there is nothing much required except the access to internet and :

- a valid email address- a valid credit card or bank acc.

This is probably no wonder that PayPal is so popular and so commonly used! :)

2 :What Happened to one of the Grandfather?

What happened to one of the grandfather aka Friendster?

Do you still remember this logo? When was the last time that you checked your Friendster account? I am guilty of not logging in for the last 5 or maybe six years. Have you ever wondered what happened to it? It was like one of the hottest social network website before the birth of facebook and myspace.

Here is a little history on it:

It was created on 22 MAR 2002, according to Wikipedia, by Jonathan Abrams and Peter Chin in California, however, its headquarters is currently in Malaysia. When Friendster just started out, its active member shot up to a few million active members in just few months. However, in late 2010, its ranking in America had fallen, many attributed it to the rise of Facebook, its so-called rival.

So what is Friendster now?

Friendster has pretty drastic changes. It changed from being a social networking site to, presently, a social entertainment site that emphasizes on games and music. Their existing accounts are maintained and able to use. However, do you still remember those testimonials you used to spam on your friends’ Friendster accounts? Not forgetting the photos, comments and shoutouts etc. They are all history, meaning, they no longer in Friendster account anymore- removed permanently.

In August 2011, two months after the transformed Friendster has relaunched, Friendster has hit more than 500,000 new registered and now has 40 plus premium games. It current goal is to introduce social games to young Asians and assist game publishers and developers to establish into Asian gaming markets.

My Thoughts:

Personally, I find Friendster and Facebook alike. They started out amazingly successful.
For friendster people just lose their interests towards it after a few years, similarly, currently, I find my friends losing their interest towards Facebook gradually. However, I can tell Facebook is making an effort to attract people with their constantly updated games, (which is a good thing.)

But, wait... what if one day Facebook can no longer provide games that interest people?
Will it face the same fate as Friendster or worse? (food for thought)

1 : Welcome to the world of Facebook!

Having to use Facebook so regularly in our daily lives, Facebook has caused a pretty significant effect on us. 

Facebook is a social network that was started out by Mark Zuckerberg and college friends in Feb 2004. Like other social network websites, it has the standard user profile pages, allows users to add friends, exchange messages, automatic notification of updates and also allowing friends to upload and tag photos. It is not surprising that Facebook is one of the most popular social media, given that it has approximate 750 million (July 2011) members who are actively using it. Since the introduction of it, our world has drastic changes, both positively and negatively, changing the way we communicate and interact with one another. 

Due to the large number of members using Facebook, it definitely has its impacts to the society in many ways. On one instance, Facebook has helped mr. John Watson to reunite with his long-lost daughter, Danielle Petratos, whom he had tried searching through many means for the past twenty years! (Eyewitness News, NY). Another similar case is mr. Tony Macnauton and his daughter, Frances Simpson, whom he had lost contact with since she was one, (Ezine Articles) through the help of Facebook.

However, there is also downside to this social media that we called Facebook.

Because people feel safe in the Facebook as they can choose to approve who are allowed to view their profile, they neglected the fact that Facebook can be very opened with their information to their so-called friends, thus, it allows people to take advantage of it like, identity theft, social engineering, cyber-stalking and also cyber bullying! Therefore, one must always be careful of the amount of information you divulge.

Ironically, not only does Facebook helps to reunite families, it also indirectly causes couple to split up. With the increase use of Facebook, according to Daily Mail, 4 out of five divorce lawyers had use social media as evidence of infidelity, and most cases involves ex-lovers rekindled through Facebook, or having Facebook flings.

At the same time, one must be cautious as to not fall into the trap of Facebook and becomes addicted to it. If you are suspecting that you are addicted to Facebook, why not try checking yourself against the list below?

This is taken from CBS News, given by Zack Whittaker who is impossibly addicted to Facebook:

1.  Being paranoia: "Why hasn't this person messaged me back?" 

2. Spend more than one to five hours in Facebook.

3.Unable to differentiate the reality and Facebook. 

4.Adding friends and posting on friends’ walls unnecessarily 

5. Feeling despair when not using Facebook, and having other withdrawal symptoms

To sum up, everything has its pros and cons, what matters is how you use it. The intention of you setting up an account in Facebook is it really to find back long lost friends? Or you actually have other ulterior motive in mind? And you staying in your Facebook account simply because you need to? Or rather is because you cannot resist it?
Lastly,I would like to end this entry with :

Thanks for reading! feel free to leave comments! :)