http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/06/twitter-aims-to-track-user-trends-with-purchase-of-analytics-company-smallthought.html

Twitter may be thinking big with its purchase of Smallthought Systems, a company that tracks user trends for websites.

The announcement made on the San Francisco Internet company’s blog explained that the ability to analyze millions of messages that flow through Twitter each day has become an “increasingly crucial part of improving” the service as its usage explodes. Twitter’s chief operating officer, Dick Costolo, recently estimated that the company processes more than 65 million updates from its 190 million users each day.

Smallthought is just one in a growing number of acquisitions that Twitter has made to add features to its service.

Better analytics around links shared on Twitter seems to be one of the company’s chief goals. It recently announced it would supply its own link shortener, t.co.

-- Jessica Guynn

Photo: Dick Costolo. Credit: Joi Ito