One top Sina news editor admitted recently on his microblog that he'd dreamed "for many years" of setting up a page on the news portal where readers could nominate and vote for their favorites.

Short and convenient, micro-blogs also experienced a "big bang" in China last year, with the number of micro-bloggers at China`s popular portal sina.com.cn almost doubling in less than six months.

Sina said it has created a separate channel dubbed "Weibo Refutes Rumors" to spread denials of false information.