Twitter - Connecting the World in 140 Characters or Less

What is it?

Social networking and microblogging site using instant messaging or SMS (short message service).
Can be accessed anytime through internet, smart phone, or texting from a cell phone anywhere in the world using a given Twitter code.
These short messages have been coined "Tweets"

History

• Created March, 2006 by Jack Dorsey and released to public in July 2006. 
• Twitter was founded under the name of a small start-up company, Odeo, which was founded on a technology that took a message from a phone number, turned it into an MP3, and hosted it on the internet. The mission was to make it a podcasting platform.  However, Apple went public with iTunes before Odeo could get up and running.
• Odeo needed a new idea, and Jack Dorsey suggested a site based on status updates. Dorsey, Noah Glass of Odeo, and German programmer Florian Webber designed a system that took a text message from one number and sent it to all of your friends.  In its infancy it was called Twttr and Glass was asked to head the team.
• Dorsey came up with the original idea, but Noah Glass was the passion behind the project.
• At first, it was mostly Odeo employees making use of the program - racking up hundreds of dollars in texting charges.  Participation increased exponentially when an earthquake hit the area and news spread quickly using Twitter.
• Odeo's CEO, Evan Williams, proposed a buyout of the companies stock for the investors when the company's future was uncertain.  The investors jumped on it.  Williams bought the company and Twitter for $5 million.  It was worth $5 billion in April, 2011 and is now the 8th most popular site in the world.