Hictu, the Twitter competitor, has released some new micro-blogging tools that aim to directly incorporate video into your posts.
Now you have the option of leaving a video blog post as an update. Beside the option to post a text update is a video blog update box with record and stop buttons. Hictu will automatically detect your webcam, enabling you to quickly say a few words, preview your clip, and post your update. The ability to leave a video post is available for commenting on others' pages as well. This of course is an effort to provide real time video, micro-blogging for the Twitter crowd.
Other updates with this release include the ability to include a feed in your updates, manage your contacts' presence information and manage your own presence status as well. Hictu has also created a mobile version of its service for you to access on the go. While the mobile access is important, the video micro-blogging feature is probably the most important addition to the Hictu service, and I expect that this concept will evolve in several directions across many other blogging and networking services. Hictu hit the nail on the head by offering easy access to quickly add a video blog post and make it available across the board in a news feed fashion.
In related news, Jaiku has recently unloaded a slew of new mobile features as well.