Broadband video publisher thePlatform — owned by Comcast since mid-2006 — has purchased social media company Chirp Interactive.
Chirp Interactive built applications for social networks, namely its Chirpscreen utility that functioned as an interactive screensaver with content from Facebook and Twitter. thePlatform says it plans to discontinue all of Chirp’s past services and instead focus [...]

The UK is dominating America when it comes to Twitter usage.
New analysis out by Hitwise this morning shows British use of Twitter was a full 70 percent higher than American use last week. UK visits to the site jumped a massive 631 percent over the past 12 months.
The researchers note that their measurements are [...]

It’s official: Twitter has taken Summize under its wing.
An acquisition was formally announced this afternoon. Summize’s services will be integrated under the Twitter brand and its staff of five engineers will move into Twitter’s San Francisco office.
As Twitter’s blog explains:
“Keeping up with interesting news and people you care about is [...]

Location based microblogging Brightkite gained a lot of attention when it launched in closed beta last year. Brightkite offers location focused microblogging that linked a Twitter style short message service with photos and a users given location.
It was the first location based network I used, and for a short time at least I regularly [...]

Posty is an Adobe AIR application that supports interaction with Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce, Tumblr and Friendfeed.
Posty delivers content for each via a separate tab for each service. Customization features are basic, allowing users to change the color of fonts, but nothing else. Posty users can post to one, all, or a combination of each service [...]

White label social network provider Pringo has added a micro-blogging service to its mix, a move claimed to be the “first white label social networking platform which allows customers to employ Twitter-like functionality.”
We’ve seen no shortage of new players enter the microblogging space recently as Twitter has ridden the fail whale. I don’t have [...]

Video microblogging service Hictu has upgraded its offering, at the same time entering the emerging blog video commenting space. Hictu, for those not aware of the service, was the very first video microblogging service, although it tends to be overlooked for Seesmic these days.
The upgrade to Hictu delivers a diversity of microblogging tools that pushes [...]

From our special correspondent, Fake Steve Gillmor.
Today we get the latest full ongoing back-filling explanation of Twitter. The idea that Twitter was created in seven days by FriendFeed is one of several XMPP bone scans currently being pursued. In a post modern deconstruction this afternoon, God confirms a birds nest and tree makes little Twitters. [...]

The hot rumor, seemingly traceable to this post by Josh Chandler, has Twitter buying Twitter search service Summize. It’s not confirmed yet, and given it took over a week for Twitter to confirm its last round of founding, don’t expect a denial or official confirmation any time soon.
Most people seem to be focused on the [...]

If you’ve not heard of Ping.fm before but are suffering from social/ microblogging service overkill, Ping.fm is a service for you. The closed beta service has been around for some time, but I only got my hands on an invite recently, and my only gripe: why didn’t someone get me onto this earlier!
Ping.fm is a [...]

OK, so the headline is a little sarcastic, but microblogging services are quickly turning into fast food outlets, so many to choose from, so little with any substantial benefits over the others. Kwippy is another microblogging service that has launched into closed beta, and Steve Hodson was kind enough to invite me in (also read [...]

A wry version of me could easily suggest that first adopters like shiny new things and flock en masse to each new thing that comes along. While that’s in part true, there’s actually a deeper need here. For an Identi.ca day one wrap, I’m turning primarily to FriendFeed, where some of the best commentary, content [...]

Indenti.ca is a new microblogging service with extra features that immediately place this as a potential Twitter killer: it’s open source AND it supports OpenMicroBlogging.
If OpenMicroBlogging means nothing to you, let me explain. From very early on folks like Dave Winer have been calling for decentralized microblogging, where you can host your own microblogging platform [...]