Twitter tweeting US election
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Twitter, the popular micro-blogging service, has launched a new site, Twitter Election 2008, to allow users to share news and comment on the US presidential election.
The real-time short-messaging service (twitter.com) has created five filters at election.twitter.com for users to track news about the election: Barack Obama, John McCain, Joe Biden, Sarah Palin and one for "All Candidates."
"We're filtering hundreds of Twitter updates per minute to create a new source for gathering public opinion about the presidential election and a new way for you to share your thoughts," Twitter said in announcing the service.
Democratic candidate Barack Obama has a Twitter account, presumably updated by campaign aides, with more than 86,000 followers receiving his short updates of less than 140 characters known as "tweets."
A Twitter account with more than 500 followers exists under the name of Republican John McCain but a campaign spokeswoman said Friday the candidate does not maintain a Twitter account.