Twitter is on it's way to big success. What started off as a side project back in March '06 for Obvious Corp, makers of the not so succesful Odeo, has grown into the next big thing. As it rose, it took awhile for me to comprehend what made it so special.
A couple of dugg articles later, such as this one, have helped me get that it's an evolution of social networking, with rapid fire responses, as well as a live blogging tool, as well as anywhere instant messenger. The interesting dichotomy here seems to be that you need to invest a lot of a little in terms of posts, to create value from the app.
Having a presidential candidate use the thing has definitely helped their appeal, but the real closer seems to be their inclusion of SXSW. Some are speculating that the influx of messages conference will kill the service, but I think that it will actually keep the ball rolling, as it helps create more press. I give it a few more weeks until the mainstream press gets ahold of it.
What's fascinating to me is how Twitter's founder, Evan Williams, has twice evolved his businesses, as he was previously the founder of Blohowgger, which started as a project management tool. I stumbled onto his chapter last night in "Founders at Work", one of the best books I've ever read. Evan isn't the only one with that ability, and it seems to be a prevailing case for many of the founders which are interviewed in the book (the exception being Ray Ozzie, who seems to have future goggles).
Max Levchin, the Paypal founder shared the same story, as he started Paypal as a PDA money transfer tool. The ability to adapt and evolve is a skill that isn't typically highlighted when people talk about entrepreneurship, and I think should be spoken about more often. It's something I've personally had to go through already and can be an interesting dilemna to tackle.
Andy Sacks, Judy's Book founder, has been a prime example of this evolution, and has graciously let everyone into the process on his blog.
UPDATE: Lots of other bloggers took notice:
Vallewag: Twitter blows up at SXSW
Micro Persuasion - Steve Rubel - Twitter, Human Attention and Moore's Law