One of the most talked about new web applications today is a service called Twitter. A dead-simple social messaging application, Twitter has been the subject of recent controversy in the blogosphere. Some like it. Some don’t. Some just wonder how we will get anything done.

What is Twitter? From Medialoper:

If you’re not familiar with Twitter, it’s a web 2.0ish chat/SMS mashup that allows users to send quick messages to friends (or the world) from just about anywhere. Unlike traditional chat and SMS, Twitter seems to be more group based and messages have persistence. Your most recent twit becomes something of a short-term status for your entire life.

Twitter is interesting to study because like any good social networking site, the service is only of value to you when your friends are on it. In the same way that Facebook without friends isn’t worth using, Twittering by yourself wouldn’t be much fun at all. Twitter, like those before it, had to reach its tipping point.

Recently, Twitter tipped, and it tipped dramatically. This year’s SxSW festival in March provided Twitter just the boost it needed to tip. Take a look at page views, noting specifically March 2007:

Another look at the data is in terms of the number of messages posted. Andy Baio took a guess at estimating number of messages in the system using the IDs displayed in Twitter URLs. We see the same pattern in his Twitter analysis. I’ve taken the Excel file of ev’s Twits and added the second half of March. The rate of new posts has stayed the same, even after SxSW:

SxSW tipped Twitter in a big way.

What makes such a simple server so appealing? Well, no one really knows. Kathy Sierra has speculated that it’s an addiction:

it’s a near-perfect example of the psychological principle of intermittent variable reward, the key addictive element of slot machines.

Jason Kottke has a different take:

Maybe that’s when you know how you’ve got a winner: when people use it like mad but can’t fully explain the appeal of it to others. See also: weblogs, Flickr.

Whatever the reason, it’s clear that Twitter is on its way to the mainstream, just like weblogs, Facebook and Flickr before it. Usually the tipping point of a phenomenon is hidden behind the scenes, but it seems pretty clear that SxSW provided a very specific date and reason for Twitter’s tipping.

Oh, and yes, I Twitter.