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TwitPic

Screenshot of TwitPic in November 2009
URL	www.twitpic.com
Slogan	Share photos on Twitter
Type of site	Image sharing
Registration	Required
Available language(s)	English
Owner	Noah Everett
Created by	Noah Everett
Launched	Early 2008[1]
Alexa rank	565 (April 2013[update])[2]
Current status	Online

TwitPic is a website that allows users to post pictures to the Twitter microblogging service.^[3] TwitPic is often used by citizen journalists to upload and distribute pictures in near real-time as an event is taking place.^[4][5]

History [edit]

TwitPic was launched in 2008 by Noah Everett.^[1] In an interview with Mixergy, Noah Everett revealed that he had been offered a price in the range of 10 million US dollars for his company but he declined the offer.^[6] In 2011, Everett launched Heello, a service that also supports text posts and videos but is less dependent on Twitter. Twitpic's first app was released on 7 May 2012.^[7] The app was first released for the iPod touch and iPhone.

Description [edit]

TwitPic can be used independently of Twitter as an image hosting website similar to Flickr. However, several characteristics make this site a companion for Twitter:

• TwitPic uses usernames and passwords from Twitter
• Comments to photographs are sent as reply tweets
• TwitPic URLs are already short, making it unnecessary to use URL shortening

Anyone with a Twitter account is eligible to post pictures to the site. As of May 2011^[update], Twitpic altered their terms of use, allowing them to distribute the photographs people have uploaded to their "Affiliates." However, Twitpic refuses to state who these affiliates may be and what they gain by distributing the pictures. This has triggered a public outcry by users over the possibility of Twitpic publishing user content without compensation.^[8] As a result, people have begun boycotting Twitpic and removing all of their images. Twitpic addressed these concerns in a blog post, claiming that the changes in the terms had been misinterpreted.^[9]

Related Applications [edit]

TweetDeck, Echofon, Tweetie, Twitfile, and Twitterrific are iPhone applications that can upload photos to TwitPic.^{[10] [11]} ÜberTwitter, OpenBeak and Twitter for BlackBerry are BlackBerry applications that have the capability of uploading images to TwitPic. WebOS phones may upload images to TwitPic using the Tweed application. Android phones can upload pictures to TwitPic with the Twidroid and Seesmic applications. Windows Phone devices can upload pictures to TwitPic with the TouchTwit application. All INQ mobile phones have the capability of uploading a picture immediately after it has been taken due to the social networking nature of the phone.

Both the official Twitter for Android and Twitter for iPhone applications feature TwitPic as an option for sending pictures to Twitter. Yfrog is another popular picture sending option offered by both applications.

According to a report by Sysomos, as of 30 May 2011 (2011-05-30)^[update], TwitPic is the leading third-party image hosting service for Twitter. Of the nearly 2.25 million daily image shares on Twitter, 45.7% of them come from TwitPic.^[12] Twitter announced partnership with Photobucket to be the default photo sharing application on 1 June 2011, which may significantly affect TwitPic's market share.

In Media [edit]

In January 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 experienced multiple bird strikes and had to be ditched in the Hudson River after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport in New York City. A passenger on one of the ferries who rushed to help, took a picture of the downed plane as passengers were still evacuating, and tweeted it via TwitPic before traditional media arrived at the scene.^[13][14] The TwitPic service crashed as thousands of people tried to access the photo at the same time.^[15] TwitPic also crashed on April 1, 2009 as a result of the large number of photos (and people viewing these photos) being posted from the G20 protests in London.

See also [edit]

• Flickr
• Heello
• Twitter
• Yfrog

References [edit]

External links [edit]

• Official website
• How TwitPic is bringing in over $1.5 mil a year from simple Twitter app