What changed in how people read their Tweetstream while UberTwitter and Twidroyd were shut off from the Twitter API?

Twitter for Blackberry got a big (more than 50%) boost, which suggests that at least some UberTwitter customers opted for a new client. TweetDeck lost share, which doesn’t make sense (it wasn’t blocked) but moved up in ranking. Another ranking boost: the Mobile Web moved from position six to position five, suggesting some of those Blackberry and Android customers simply switched to their browsers.

The web and Twitter for the iPhone were unchanged.

These data for “last day” (contrasted with “last hour” or “last week”) are from TwitterStream. I’ve interpreted “last day” to be “yesterday” — technically it is the preceding 24 hours (data accessed at 1.33 pm Pacific). Here are the rankings:

1. The web: Thursday — 35%; Friday — 35%
2. Thursday: UberTwitter — 7.3%; Friday — Twitter for Blackberry — 10.7%
3. Twitter for iPhone: Thursday –6.6%; Friday — 6.7%
4. Thursday: Twitter for Blackberry– 6.2%; Friday — Tweetdeck — 4.9%
5. Thursday: Tweetdeck: 5.3%; Friday — Mobile Web — 2.95%

Looking at UberMedia client traffic for last week shows that the company accounted for a little more than 10% of total traffic. However, the two affected applications, together, accounted for less than 8%. This is because Twitter did not block Echofon on Friday and remained at position seven (7), the same position it held last week.

• UberTwitter (Blackberry and iPhone) : 7.0%
• Echofon (iPhone) : 2.76%
• Twidroyd (Android) : 0.82%

There’s been a lot of chatter about why Twitter did what it did and why UberMedia did what it did. That’s for another post.

On Friday, I analyzed how people read tweets using Twitter client data from TwitterSource. This post analyzed what happened in the 24 hours following that post.

Twitter Traffic By Client For Feb 18 2011 — Data From TwitterSource.info

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To put into perspective the impact of Twitter’s having shut down UberTwitter and Twidroyd today, look at these data from TwitterSource for “last day” (which one assumes means yesterday) on the various ways people read their Tweetstream:

1. The web: 35%
2. Ubertwitter: 7.3%
3. Twitter for iPhone: 6.6%
4. Twitter for Blackberry: 6.2%
5. Tweetdeck: 5.3%

Shutting down 7 percent of your traffic? Ballsy. That must be a serious policy violation: TechCrunch reports that at least part of the complain was trademark violation. According to UberMedia exec Bill Gross, the app is being renamed @UberSocial and all is well:

#UberTwitter & #Twidroyd users: We have made the changes Twitter requested. As soon as Twitter reactivates, you will be live again. Thx!

Ubertwitter is a popular Blackberry client but they also make (made?) an iPhone client; Twidroyd is the “number one” Android client.

Note that these data relate to traffic, not people. Many people use multiple tools to access Twitter. The chart and data are from TwitterSource, which uses a 5 percent random sample of publicly posted messages, the Twitter streaming API’s sample resource.

How People Read Tweets via TwitterSource “Last Day”

Twitter.com remains the primary access point for people using the service. According to data released today, 8-in-10 people use the primary web site to access Twitter. Another 22 percent are using SMS or the mobile web site. About 1-in-10 use Twitter for the iPhone and about 1-in-10 use Twitter for the Blackberry.

Also, there are about 145 million accounts.

Nine months after the creation of the service in March 2006, Twitter only had a few thousand users. A year later there were an estimated 150,000 people using the service. How did Twitter get those vital initial users? Read more.

This morning, @biz (Biz Stone) and @ev (Evan Williams) kicked off Twitter’s first official developer conference, Chirp, with some facts and data and a stunning announcement related to the Library of Congress.

First, the numbers. There are 105.8 million registered users but 180 million monthly unique visitors to the website. The deduction: non-registered users read tweets. And we know that registered users read tweets primarily from other devices. Williams noted that Twitter is currently handling 3 billion requests a day; this API-driven traffic is equivalent to Yahoo, he said, noting that no other major service is this distributed.

“Open exchange of information has a positive impact on the world,” Williams said in his keynote. Reflecting that sentiment, Twitter streamed the event live. Moreover, the sessions are archived at Justin.tv for delayed viewing.

An even more significant reflection of that sentiment: Twitter is giving the Library of Congress the entire corpus of public tweets (think of the potential for watchdogging government and politicians).

Expect to see an emphasis on the scholarly and research implications of the acquisition. I’m no Ph.D., but it boggles my mind to think what we might be able to learn about ourselves and the world around us from this wealth of data. And I’m certain we’ll learn things that none of us now can even possibly conceive.

Just before noon, @biz explained on the Twitter blog:

Over the years, tweets have become part of significant global events around the world—from historic elections to devastating disasters.

It is our pleasure to donate access to the entire archive of public Tweets to the Library of Congress for preservation and research. It’s very exciting that tweets are becoming part of history. It should be noted that there are some specifics regarding this arrangement. Only after a six-month delay can the Tweets will be used for internal library use, for non-commercial research, public display by the library itself, and preservation.

The six-month delay and non-commercial use are meaningful because they relate to potential revenue streams for Twitter, the company. But Twitter, the social engine, has responded to public interest pleas regarding access related to government and news. A big hurrah!

The final “open access” announcement relates to Google’s timeline search. Google Replay will let us relive a real time search from specific moments in time. (GoogleWave, anyone?) Although Google Replay currently accesses fairly recent tweets, @biz wrote that “eventually it will reach back to the very first Tweets every created.”

Feel free to give Replay a try—if you want to understand the popular contemporaneous reaction to the retirement of Justice Stevens, the health care bill, or Justin Bieber’s latest album, you can virtually time travel and replay the Tweets. The future seems bright for innovation on the Twitter platform and so it seems, does the past!

Finally, one of the coolest artifacts to emerge from the event this afternoon is this information graphic created by Gerardo Obieta (@G_Obieta), a graphic designer who works for Weber Shandwick Minneapolis. He shared it with the world via Twitter and TwitPic.

:: This post first appeared at wiredpen
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On Monday, Twitter reported that it is managing 50 million tweets a day (600 tweets per second). In 2007, the average (?) was 5,000 times a day and by 2009 hit 35 million a day.

Twitter Reports 50 Million Tweets Per Day

Today, Twitter reported that it is managing 50 million tweets a day (600 tweets per second). In 2007, the average (?) was 5,000 times a day and by 2009 hit 35 million a day.

Today, in a 24-hour period, the rapper Lil’ Wayne (@LilTuneChi) garnered 112,466 followers (TwitterCounter). For context, I think Oprah gathered 215,961 followers in her first 24-hour period (but my interpretation of the blog post could be in error). She had 56,000 followers before she had posted her first tweet.

Today, in the 21-hour period after posting his first tweet, His Holiness the Dalai Lama had attracted about 40,000 followers. (I’ll update Tuesday with data from TwitterCounter.) Is there another religious figure that compares? (The Pope endorsed digital outreach in January, but I have not heard of anyone from the church setting up Twitter.)

Pretty amazing untapped desire; more fodder for the hype cycle. Screenshots below the fold.

Twitter Reports 50 million Tweets Per Day

Twitter Counter Data For Lil Tunechi: 112,466 Followers In First 24 Hours

Twitter Counter For The Dalai Lama

:: This post first appeared at wiredpen

According to worldwide comScore figures released today, Twitter’s own site attracted 73.5 million unique individuals in January, up 8 percent from December, 2009 (when it had 65.2 million visitors). Its annual growth rate is still a phenomenal 1,105 percent. A year ago, Twitter.com attracted only an estimated 6 million visitors. Read more from TechCrunch.