Twitter has been down for most of today. Quite a bit longer than the 2.5 hours mentioned in an original site notice.

What is working is competitor Jaiku. A lot of people in my Twitter circle use that service as well as Twitter, as I do.

So everyone’s been able to keep up with everyone via Jaiku.

Does that mean Jaiku will gain from Twitter’s absence for the best part of 12 hours so far? Will people stick with Jaiku and ditch Twitter? Go to Pownce, perhaps?

Good questions. Jaiku clearly will benefit immediately from everyone who can’t use Twitter but can use Jaiku. Keeping those users ‘sticky’ is the key thing.

I think, though, that much will depend on what the “super strength and agility” is that is expected from Twitter’s upgrade.

Maybe it’s being bought by Google…