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Greetings from Tweets-burgh.

The micro-blogging site of Twitter has evolved from a cool geek communications device to a global phenomenon, and Pittsburgh has its share of tweeting going on. Type in the city's name in the Twitter search feature and between two and five tweets per minute will come up.

It's hard to tell much of a story in 140 characters or less, the maximum length of a Twitter post. But woven together, the threads form a great citywide conversation that can be fun to eavesdrop on.

We picked a day at random -- Friday, Aug. 14 -- and monitored Burgh-related Twitter posts throughout the day.

The conversations are the same ones we overhear in restaurants and coffee shops, on street corners and on talk radio. The hot topic was -- of course -- sports.

That day, Steelers Nation was celebrating the Super Bowl champions' first preseason victory. But the Pirates suffered an ignominious loss against the Cubs that afternoon, spurring a number of disgruntled tweets:

rarickard: Can the MLB institute a 10-run rule just for the Pittsburgh Pirates?"

ClaireFlaire: "Do the Pittsburgh Pirates really have to finish the season? Can they just forfeit the rest of their games and call it a day?"

jmsbmck: "The Pirates are now down by 2 touchdowns, an extra point and a 2-point conversion. Oh, wait ... wrong sport."

But a group of kids photographed at PNC Park were all smiles, and their photo found its way onto Twitter that day.

Others told their story in pictures, like JChich81 who posted a photo of the city skyline with this caption: "Ha ha my first glimpse of dahntahn."

Aug. 14 capped a week in which two national bloggers conventions -- the liberal Netroots Nation and the conservative RightOnline -- were in town. Both camps had plenty to tweet about. Even pastordan, who evidently missed a flight: "Missing Howard Dean & waiting for lunch in not-Pittsburgh. Seagulls promise substantive debate on health care, though."

There were plenty of postings from other visitors and tourists, too, along with an influx of college students moving into town for the fall semester.

Collectively, they painted a pretty nice picture of the city.

michellebai cited the city's "cute old charm."

dangould: Summed the place up neatly in the requisite 140 characters or less: "Pittsburgh is an old city much like Boston but with more heavy industry. Three rivers, once key to shipping, now choke traffic at bridges."

This one from LocalFamily reads more like a haiku sampler: "Think I'm on the road to Pittsburgh? Guess again. We cannot find the cat."

Twitter served its primary function as a way to exchange information. A blogger known as G20 Voice was trying to find out how to go about blogging from the upcoming G-20 summit and got a response from well-known local blogger iheartpgh (Lindsay Patross).

A practical application came from Pghtransit, which posted bus reroutings and schedule changes for the weekend.

Current and future events are always a hot topic, like this posting from MoJustice: "There will be no working ppl and no rights in Pittsburgh during G20. Universities are closing, non essential businesses, ;-)"

Many tweets were updates from people headed to shows and concerts, giving the reader a pretty good idea of what's going on around town.

PittsburghFDN: "WAY too much going on in Pittsburgh this weekend. I am simply torn. Bellydance, bloggers, arts orgs, beer." Someone posted a Google map showing the locations of artist Shepard Fairey's street artworks. One person offered his soul for sale in exchange for tickets to an upcoming Matchbox 20 show.

A famous local sandwich got its share of tweets -- and advertising money can't buy: hey_stephanie: "I just ate the world's largest sandwich at Primanti Bros. in Pittsburgh. ... Bring on the food coma." And this one from words­nowheard: "man how I miss Pittsburgh ... primanti bro's is the only reason to live!"

Where but Pittsburgh Twitter could you find the definition for "octobong"? According to boBSerrone: "An 8-person beer bong used for tailgating Pittsburgh Steeler games. Winning the SuperBowl has its benefits."

Pittsburgh's image as zombie central was reinforced in an invitation to follow the progress of director George Romero's latest undead epic "Survival of the Dead" on Twitter.

OK, so you don't get too much profundity and insight in 140 characters. But people manage to capture the essence of the place in their tweets, whether they're coming back or seeing it for the first time:

amandabeaty7: "pretty excited about coming home tomorrow! i love pittsburgh but you can only take so much of it at a time."

And this from nick1eonard: "Got my parking permit for my neighborhood. I guess I officially live in Pittsburgh now."