Twitter Snags $35M in Venture Capital

Total posts up from 1B a year ago, 5B just 4 months ago

(NEWSER) - Twitter isn’t growing as explosively as it used to, but the volume of traffic on the microblogging site is still expanding fast enough that it should hit 10 billion total tweets in the coming days. That’s up from a billion about a year ago, and 5 billion just 4 months ago. Gauging the progress is quite simple, Mashable reports; just look at the number tag at the end of a tweet’s URL. A recent one read 9917803012, and the site produces about 50 million a day. More»

Pages are easier to read and faster to load, but that may not survive advertising

(NEWSER) - As far as Facebook is concerned, the “liter” the better, writes Rafe Needleman for CNET. The site’s scaled-down “Lite” version is now available in the US and India, and the "new layout feels simpler and faster, almost Twitter-like.” Gone is “most of the navigation and info page that was on the left,” leaving users undistracted by the “mostly superfluous details that resided there.” More»

(NEWSER) - In a possible first for Twitter, a malicious attack shut down the service entirely today, Wired reports. The denial-of-service assault flooded the site's server with requests, overloading it and blocking legitimate users from gaining access for about three hours; Tweeters are now slowly regaining access. More»

(NEWSER) - The concept of Twitter, widely copied in the US and abroad, has found a home at a mommy-centric website, the Wall Street Journal reports. The site Today’s Mama hosts a new microblog called “Connect," which, unlike Twitter, allows users to join groups by region or topic. But it still hews to the basic format; mothers who want to write more than 140 words need not apply. More»

Site seeks to change world, not make cash

(NEWSER) - At Twitter headquarters, the focus isn’t on how to turn the phenomenon into a moneymaking enterprise: it’s on changing the world, Will Leitch writes in New York magazine. “It’s another step toward the democratization of information,” said CEO Evan Williams. “I’ve come to really believe that if you make it easier for people to share information, more good things happen.” More»