Teens get social on cell phones

Social networking: coming to a mobile phone near you. Online services like Twitter, Radar and Jaiku are allowing people of all ages to update their lives in real-time by sending photos, text, and video straight to social networking profiles from their phones, according to The New York Times.

Based in San Francisco, Twitter lets people broadcast text messages from their phones to an audience of millions online. John Edwards uses Twitter to update people on his campaign whereabouts. Conversely, Radar broadcasts only to a user's personal network, not to everyone.

Another site, Kyte, invites people to send video from their phones to an online Kyte "channel," turning millions of cameraphone owners into would-be broadcasters. In some cases the video stream can be watched live, allowing users to peer into people's lives while it's happening.

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey said he believes social networking in general can be profitable. But, he adds, it is not yet entirely clear how, and how soon.

In the meantime, Tiny Pictures chief executive John Poisson noted, “Exhibitionism will exist as long as there is voyeurism.”

Tiny Pictures' Radar service lets users send camera phone images to the Web or onto other phones within an exclusive network of friends.