Sadly, the rapid development of new technologies often outpaces the ability of commentators to classify them. Micro-blogging is the rather inelegant name for a group of sites including the likes of Jaiku, Plurk and Twitter, of which the latter is the standout leader.

Basically a standalone version of the status update facilities in social-networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, Twitter allows members to post 140-character statements that can range from banal observations to useful hints, tips and web links.

A raft of celebs have switched on to Twitter, including actor, broadcaster and technophile Stephen Fry. But its probably President Obamas Twitter posts (or tweets to insiders) that have proved the biggest endorsement. The Obama team added Twitter to a sophisticated web strategy, which helped secure $200 million of funding and attract 850,000 participants.

Examples of execs using Twitter to communicate to their teams and network with peers include Cisco's CTO and NASA's CIO as well as a bunch of tech CEOs. The benefits of micro-blogging for businesses may not be immediately obvious, aside from adding to the general levels of collaboration engendered by web 2.0 tools, but some publishers and broadcasters have set up corporate Twitter accounts to help push their content.

Other companies have also seized on the marketing potential that Twitter offers. In terms of how tools like Twitter will impact corporate IT in the future, industry analyst Datamonitor predicts that social networking and micro-blogging tools will become increasingly ingrained into call centre customer service and customer relationship management strategies.

Twitter claims it has no plans as yet to generate cash from the platform but co-founder Biz Stone admitted in February that the company may start to charge corporate users for value add services at some point in the future.

See our Data Feed section for figures charting the amazing growth of Twitter.