It became a happening, which is why it makes sense for Twitter to ask us a throw back yet born anew question.

Here’s what Biz had to say about it on the Twitter blog:

The fundamentally open model of Twitter created a new kind of information network and it has long outgrown the concept of personal status updates. Twitter helps you share and discover what’s happening now among all the things, people, and events you care about. “What are you doing?” isn’t the right question anymore—starting today, we’ve shortened it by two characters. Twitter now asks, “What’s happening?”

And onward to other bloggy reactions:

• Mashable: On the surface it’s a minor change, and yet it’s significant in reflecting the shifting focus and user behavior of the service over time. As most users know, the official question is largely ignored by those who have found myriad ways to share pretty much anything they wanted, be it information, relationships, entertainment, citizen journalism, and beyond.

• John Battelle’s Searchblog: For starters, it’s a rather subtle leapfrog of Facebook, which has recently mimicked Twitter with its status updates. Facebook is stuck (but there are upsides to this stuck-ness) in a personal framework. Twitter, by moving past the YOU, is declaring Facebook’s imitation moot.

• TechCrunch: It’s a wise move because “What are you doing” seemed too narrow for the platform. Broadening the question to match all the things people use twitter for was necessary.

• Technologizer: Twitter is catching up to its users, who in large part abandoned the literal description of their activities long ago. My feed might not be an indication of everyone else’s, but looking at the last 40 tweets in my timeline, only six are descriptions of what the person is up to.

(this piece originally appeared on Technorati)

Now, here comes the dilemma: you already have your hands on your Xbox controller, so it’s a huge inconvenience to move over to your laptop, Blackberry, or iPhone so that you can tweet and Facebook Connect and social network at the same time, right?

Well, now you’re all set! Marc Whitten, Xbox Live’s General Manager, has announced that Xbox Live will support Twitter and Facebook beginning on Tuesday.

In all seriousness, this is a significant development that further brings the big time gaming, broadcast media, and social media worlds together… and you don’t even need to leave your couch to absorb its impact.

And here’s what the bloggers have to say:

* Mashable: According to Major Nelson, the new Dashboard Update will be going live to everyone next Tuesday, November 17. The update also includes a new Zune video area that picks up where the Xbox Video Marketplace left off, adding the ability to stream a number of purchases instantly instead of having to wait for them to download.

* NewTeeVee: But the key will be the ability to share Facebook photos through the television, Whitten said. Facebook integration will enable users to easily flip through those pictures, without having to worry about how to connect their PCs to their TVs.

* CrunchGear: The idea, I guess, is that you’ll be able let your friends know just how much fun you’re having while playing the latest game, or streaming the latest Netflix release, without having to go through the trouble of whipping out your phone or walking over to your computer. I see it as a convenience and nothing more. It may also mean that there’s nothing you can to do stop Twitter’s worldwide dominance.

* VG247: The date is pretty fitting since it’s a MASSIVE day in game releases: Assassin’s Creed II, Left 4 Dead 2, God War War Collection, AssCreed DS & PSP Bundle, LBP PSP, The Sims 3 expansion World Adventures, RE: Darkside Chronicles, Toy Hawk: RIDE, Lego Indy 2, etc.

* Destructoid: As you’ve seen in our video preview of the update (or yourself if you’re one of the lucky ones in the beta) the update doesn’t allow Tweets or FB messages on the fly; rather, users have to jump into an application which makes this the second most pointless thing ever. The first most pointless thing, by the way, is my autographed portrait of Dennis Rodman.

(this piece originally appeared on Technorati)