Rick Power

Recently released stats show that use of micro-blogging service Twitter rocketed nearly 1,000% in the UK over the past year. This data was released by industry analysts HitWise.

For the first time, the site has seen more visits than “social bookmarking” site Digg, which allows users to share links to sites. Twitter hit the headlines earlier in January, providing the first pictures of downed US Airways flight 1549 and continues to attract exposure with an increase of users, including celebrity bloggers.

The site may continue its meteoric rise as the new US President is a long serving user of the service. Twitter has jumped from 2,953rd most popular in the UK in 2008 to 291st as of mid-January and shows no signs of slowing.

The newly released ‘Twitterlights‘ allows users to

highlight internet snippets of text and twitter them. This free application is a quick way of

tweeting something you have come across on the internet, sharing it quickly with your followers. Using software

called i-Lighter, users can connect web content with twitter!

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It’s this easy:
Click ‘Start i-Lighting’
If you find something you want to send

to your Twitter followers send it through i-Lighter
On any web page you are reading, Right Click and click Twitter This!
Type

in your 140 character twitter message
The URL of the web page will automatically be sent as a TinyURL

Enter your Twitter

ID and password
Hit send and you’re done!