some amazing discoveries. Along the way, he also transformed the way NASA shares science with the world. MarsPhoenix was an amazing use of Twitter that did not go unrecognized and we're happy to have had the chance to share in this historic mission. Alas, when the icy cloak of Martian winter draws darkness across the distant planet, a solar powered robot must say farewell. Sweet dreams little guy!

Three years ago during my time as CEO of Odeo, I was lucky to be working with a software engineer Jack Dorsey who wasn't afraid to bring up an idea he'd been thinking about for a long time. What if a simple status message was the format for a social communication service? We were exploring various options for Odeo at the time and experimenting with SMS, so the idea was intriguing. Jack teamed up with Biz Stone to design a prototype. This simple idea called Twitter proved increasingly interesting the more we fleshed it out.

After my company Obvious purchased the assets of Odeo which at the time included Twitter from the shareholders, we decided to form Twitter, Inc as a separate company founded by myself along with Jack and Biz. Jack had by then been leading the project for months with Biz's support, and I was intent on pursuing Obvious. With my blessing, the reigns of Twitter CEO were handed to Jack and I accepted a position as Chairman of the Board.

Rising quickly to the challenge, Jack took Twitter through an order of magnitude of growth and two major rounds of financing, while safely navigating some very rocky waters that would have taken even more experienced leaders down with the ship. Jack is a unique individual with a knack for artful minimalism and simplicity, combined with great vision and ambition. We are indeed fortunate to have his guidance.

Stepping into Different Roles
Jack and I have worked together since the beginning to define a direction and goals for the future of Twitter. I took an active executive role as Chief Product Officer at Twitter. This decision was driven by my enthusiasm and belief that Twitter has huge potential and deserves my full efforts.

We're entering a new phase now and there are new kinds of challenges ahead. Healthy companies acknowledge the need for change even during the best of times. As Twitter grows both internally and externally, we took a good look at our path forward and saw the need for a focused approach from a single leader.

While the board of directors and the company have nothing but praise for where Jack has taken us, we also agree that the best way forward is for Jack to step into the role Chairman, and for me to become CEO. Jack will remain on the board and be closely consulted for all strategic decisions, while I take on day-to-day operations with the support of Biz, Jason, Greg, and the rest of this impressive Twitter team.

Folks who use m.twitter.com to access Twitter on a mobile browser have long lamented the lack of replies. Today we're happy to say that @replies can be accessed via the mobile site. There's a link at the bottom of your timeline and here's a hint: you can just hit the number 1 on your keypad while browsing Twitter on your mobile and you'll go directly to the page.

Twitter Election 2008.

Quick, to the trends!

• New MacBooks will be introduced by Apple on October 14th and folks are already twittering in anticipation.
• Sarah Palin sit quietly next to each other in the trends list alone with their thoughts. Kippur Palin? That might work!

wordle graph of words used within tweets during last night's debate.

And we're back, with a look at this morning's trending topics.

• Blu-ray snuck into the trends while I was sifting through Yom Kippur because Netflix has announced they'll be charging more for Blu-ray movies.

Friday is typically a slower day on Twitter but not last week. Election momentum continues to build on Twitter and a few stats from Friday show it.

• Friday updates jumped 18.5% from previous Friday.
• Updates during the debate increased 160% compared to same time last week.
• Signups on Friday were up 23%.
• Signups during the debate were up 135% compared to same time last week.

We're adding a little polish to Twitter Election 2008 in advance of the upcoming debate in St. Louis—we suspect this debate will excite even more activity than the first.

This morning's tour of Twitter trends.

• Halloween is trending this morning as lots of folks note that October has arrived and Twitter excitedly—about a month, of all things.
• Sarah Palin, #bailout continue to trend.