Microblogging

It appears that blogging is now 'old skool' and has been superseded by 'microblogging'.

Microblogging is described on wikepedia as;

"a form of blogging that lets you write brief text updates (usually less than 200 characters)about your life on the go and send them to friends and interested observers via text messaging, instant messaging(IM), email or the web."

One of the leading suppliers of microblogging services is Twitter,  which has been described as part blog, part social networking site and part cell phone/IM tool. With a  limit of 140 characters per post, user updates are naturally short and to the point. Topics are wide and varied including the obvious daily life (what I'm doing right now) through to current events, news and other stories.

Whilst still pretty much an evolving technology, microblogging has already been the subject of some interesting research: "Why we Twitter: Understanding Microblogging" from the University of Maryland and NEC Laboratories. The research makes for interesting reading and helps shed some light on this emerging trend including categorising different types of microblogger and discussing their motivations.