12 little known facts about twitter

Five years ago on March 21, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey fired off the first tweet officially giving life to the micro-messaging service.

Here are some facts about the San Francisco-based startup:

* Dorsey's first tweet, sent on March 21, 2006, read: "just setting up my twttr" .

* Pop star Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) has the most Twitter followers with 8.78 million followed by Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) with 8.13 million, Britney Spears (@britneyspears) with 7.12 million, Barack Obama (@barackobama) with 6.97 million and Kim Kardashian (@kimkardashian) with 6.73 million.

* Actor Charlie Sheen (@charliesheen) was the fastest to one million followers, picking them up in just 24 hours.

* The hashtag (#) feature on Twitter which groups tweets by subject debuted in August 2007, proposed by a user

* In October 2009, Google and Microsoft began integrating tweets into their search products.

* Twitter has "370-plus" employees and is adding workers almost weekly

* Twitter is based in San Francisco, with additional employees in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington.

* Twitter was incorporated in April 2007; it was co-founded by Biz Stone, Evan Williams and Jack Dorsey -- @biz, @ev and @jack.

* The initial Twitter logo was created byTwitter co-founder Biz Stone, a former graphic designer.

* Twitter chief executive Dick Costolo is a former improvisational comedian.

* Twitter has more than 200 million registered users sending more than 140 million tweets a day.

* Last year, Twitter users sent 25 billion tweets and the company added more than 100 million new registered accounts.

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Posted in: Social Network,twitter

Twitter fast-tracked Charlie Sheen account

Twitter fast-tracked a verified account for Charlie Sheen so that he could continue his bizarre publicty campaign online, it has emerged.

Charlie Sheen and Bree Olsen in Sheen's first tweetpic

The troubled actor's verified account, @charliesheen, appeared on the social network on Tuesday, and has already attracted almost 1.2 million followers. He took over the account from a squatter, after a series of defiant TV and radio interviews in which he denied addiction problems.

Ad.ly, a firm that specialises in celebrity endorsements on Twitter, said it acted as a broker between Mr Sheen and the social network.

"Based on trusted relationships with our executives, Charlie's management team reached out to us," a spokeswoman told GQ.

"Right off the bat, we realised that Charlie's voice has no contemporary. We knew he had one speed: go."

Twitter no longer normally verifies whether celebrity accounts are genuine, after it was overwhelmed with requests. Ad.ly said executives were willing to make an exception for @charliesheen, however, as his public meltdown in recent weeks has become one of the most talked-about stories in the US.

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Posted in: People,twitter

Nike sneakers featuring Firefox, Twitter and Google.

These cool, customized sneakers designed by David Reese will definitely appeal to both sneakerheads and geeks. Love them too? You can also check out more unique sneaker designs at Brass Monki.

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Posted in: Entertainment,firefox,google,twitter