If 2007 was the year of the social networking sites like Facebook or Bebo, the year 2008 is the year of micro-blogging. What is micro-blogging? It is a form of blogging using short texts.

It is like sending text messages using your cell phones. However, instead of sending text message to one person, you use micro-blogging to publish your thoughts and activities to your social network.

In the past few years a dozen micro-blogging sites have added more communication tools to the Web 2.0 repertoire. Besides texts, now you can use audio and video as well. This article introduces you to a few popular ones.

Twitter is the leader. After creating an account, you publish your micro-contents using your web browser, cell phone, or the email client. You can also follow interesting people like artists, athletes, bands, politicians and check out their insights regularly.

Last year, the creator of the popular news ranking site digg has launched Pownce. Besides micro-blogging, Pownce provides functionality for sharing files, events, and links.

The site Tumblr is simple to use and you can publish photos and videos from your cell phone. Even if you are not wordy, you will be able to share your love and hate with others.

If you prefer talking, instead of writing, use MySay. You call the MySay service and leave a message. People in your contact will be able to listen to your thoughts using their phones, emails, or computers.

If neither text nor audio is your liking, you can use Hictu for video micro-blogging. Use your webcam to video your actions and publish it in Hictu with the click of a mouse.

IRateMyDay has an interesting angle to the micro-blogging. Instead of publishing mundane activities of you daily life, you rate your day on a scale of Worst to Great. You can also give some explanation for your rating.

Are you emotionally upset? Instead of using IRateMyDay, use EMotionr. If it is one of the happiest day of your life, rate it the highest possible 10. Don't rate the lowest 1. It can't be that bad.

After rating your day or emotion, head towards Moodmill. This site is for managing your mood. Use the mouse to slide the mood indicator and share it with your friends and contacts.

If you are more comfortable with French or German language, you can use Frazr. It has all the features and functionality of Twitter.

Micro-blogging will explode this year because of its simplicity. Twitter will lead the field. Though you can use it effectively in myriad occasions, it can be a big time waster if you are not careful.