Tweeting in the city

Zoe Topper isn’t much impressed with Twitter.com, one of the biggest social media sites on the Web right now. But that didn’t stop the 17-year-old from Lido Beach from using it for a chance to meet entertainer Britney Spears.

Spears, who was promoting her concert at Madison Square Garden last summer, used her Twitter feed to post clues leading to where she would be hiding in Manhattan with two tickets to her show. Topper and her friend rushed throughout New York City, finally arriving back at M&M World on Broadway, where hours earlier they were told by store employees that Spears is not and would not be on site. They were accompanied by approximately 1,000 other fans playing Spears’ Twitter game.

Topper said Spears arrived in a double decker tour bus, picked two fans at random and left. Disappointed, Topper and her friend left Manhattan empty handed.

The Syracuse University freshman is one of the many barrier island residents who have joined millions worldwide in logging on to Twitter every day, to follow the news, promote their businesses or get the latest celebrity gossip.

“I signed up because I want to be in the know,” technology junkie Randall Press said of his reasons for starting a Twitter account. “I follow news organizations all over the country because I want to know what’s going on the second that it happens.”

Users update their Twitter accounts using messages 140-characters or less called “tweets,” similar to cell phone text messaging. Users subscribe to post messages or follow fellow users whose tweets show up on their home pages. While the site was started in 2006, over the past years its popularity has skyrocketed due to its use by celebrities, large corporations and citizen journalists reporting breaking news, such as the uprising over the Iranian elections in June.