Definition: The practice of posting brief, regular updates about your thoughts, ideas, or activities, which can be viewed by a group of your choosing via text messaging, email, IM, or the web.

Microblogging, as both a term and a pastime, was popularized by the website Twitter, which was launched in July 2006 and won the Web Award in the blog category at the 2007 South by Southwest Conference in Austin, Texas, which facilitates the mini missives. Other such sites, including Jaiku and Pownce, have helped spawn a trend where by practitioners can be in constant contact with their family, friends, and associates.

Recently, however, many new services, with the same feature of micro-blogging are being born. Digg founder Kevin Rose, together with three other developers recently launched a service called Pownce, which integrates micro-blogging with file-sharing and event invitations. A Norwegian developer has also launched a service called Folkstr, which integrates micro-blogging with social networking.

The popular social networking websites Facebook and MySpace also have a micro-blogging feature, called “status update”.