A microblog is, as the name suggests, a blog that is much smaller than a typical, traditional blog. It is not smaller in the number of hits that it receives, but instead, in the size of the individual blog posts. While a blog post on a traditional blog might be anywhere from 250-1000 words (some longer, some shorter), your typical microblog entry is a sentence or two. Sometimes, there are no words, but instead, a picture. In other words, a microblog is a site that publishes numerous short little entries about a particular topic.

Microblogging first appeared in 2005. They were known as tumblelogs and were, for the most part, lots of links thrown together with a few thoughts mixed in. One individual described them as, “a quick and dirty stream of consciousness.” Instead of fleshing out the topic and adding more information, the blogger would provide a couple of links to different news sources, add a few short sentences and then publish.

With the arrival of sites such as Tumblr and Twitter, it is more common for people to microblog. However, despite the fact that there are millions of people on Twitter, a recent study concluded that 10% of the Twitter community accounts for 86% of the total microblogging. Other sites, though, have made it possible to microblog including Facebook and LinkedIn. These sites allow short blurbs to be posted and can, often times, be as insightful as a fleshed out blog post.

Microblogs for Current Events

During the Mumbai Terrorist Attacks and the Protests in Iran, Twitter was alive with activity as people on the ground in Mumbai and Iran posted updates about what was going on. Despite the fact the Iranian government tried to block media from seeing the protests, the ability for someone to type a quick microblog entry right on their mobile device made it very possible for media to still get their hands on news.

Because of the ease of microblogging, many politicians and businesses have also tried to gain support through microblogging. Instead of writing a long article on an issue, a politician might post a link and say a few words on it and call it a day. If the story goes viral, which they typically do, the politician can gain a considerable amount of respect from other microbloggers.

The Future of Microblogs

Microblogs are only getting more prevalent. Businesses are realizing that people want information as fast as possible and therefore, they are posting short little entries on sites such as Twitter. These entries tell about a new product and then give a link rather than trying to tell them about the product then and there.

Sites such as Twitter, Facebook and others are where the future of media is. Microblogs are able to provide up to the second news information at speeds that traditional media simply cannot. It offers an average human to suddenly become a journalist by being in the middle of a huge event such as the protests after the Iranian election. It can be anticipated that microblogging will only get bigger.