• 
• 

Micro-blogging is one recent form of short, online messages that is particularly well-suited to letting other people have permanent access to the details of one's daily life. Experts expect that this type of exchange will soon become an integral component of digital communication.

Micro-blogging combines characteristics from various communications worlds. As with traditional Web-based diaries or blogs, micro-bloggers create a profile with a blog service and use it to post short entries. These posts are not normally more than 140 keystrokes long - shorter than a standard text message.

One need not call up the profile page with a browser to compose and read the micro-blog messages. They are instead sent and received via instant messenger, SMS, e-mail or other special micro-blogging software for the computer, depending on which distribution channel the respective service uses.

The best-known service of this type is called Twitter. Launched roughly two years ago, it provides a solution for family members, friends and colleagues who are curious to find out "What are you doing right now?" The sender decides whether only specific recipients should receive the messages - tweets, in the site's lingo - or whether all Twitter users are welcome to read along.

Subscribe to enough tweets and a permanent flow of messages begins pouring in, letting the recipient truly dive into the lives of others. "Micro-blogging is like an ongoing hallway discussion, where there's always something new to experience and where you can plug in or tune out whenever you want," University of the German Federal Army sociologist Benedikt Koehler said. He is an expert in sociological Internet phenomena.

The user is also fed interesting new tidbits. Once subscribed, recipients automatically receive messages. That is the joy of this new communications form, Koehler said.

Success breeds imitation and a series of new micro-blogging sites have sprung up of late. Pownce, Jaiku and Friendfeed are all among the English-based variants. Versions in other languages have also appeared, such as the German sites Frazr, Wamadu and Niimo.