Last week we activated full SMS service for Canadian Twitter-ers who are also customers of Bell Mobility. Twitter and Bell have agreed that Bell customers on the company's text messaging bundles will be able to receive unlimited incoming Twitter SMS messages at no extra charge. If you haven't already, you can activate your phone to Twitter over SMS.

Today we're super excited to be activating full, two-way SMS service for Canadian Twitter-ers who are also customers of Bell Mobility. If you're a Bell Mobility customer, you can update Twitter via SMS and receive updates from Twitter via SMS. There are no limits and no added fees (beyond your normal texting plan). If you haven't already, you can activate your phone to Twitter over SMS. Special thanks to Bell's enthusiasm and eagerness to make this happen.

One of the driving ideas behind Twitter is to extend the power of a real-time network to mobile devices everywhere through the simple technology of SMS. Right now, the world can update Twitter via SMS but only folks in the US and Canada can receive these timely updates via SMS. Working with Bell Mobility in Canada is a first step towards expanding complete SMS functionality to all of Canada and everywhere else in the world.

Our recently hired Director of Mobile Business Development, Kevin Thau is working hard to bring full Twitter SMS to your country. In fact, he's in Europe right now trying to replicate our success with Bell Mobility. Stay tuned for more support all over the globe as we make progress. And fear not Australia—you're on the list too!

Twitter Search has been growing ever more popular despite the fact that it lives on a subdomain of our site. Today, we've placed Search and Trends into the signed-in home pages of a limited set of accounts to get a better sense of how it works for folks before we release the feature completely into the wild. Most people will not see this test, just a small, random subset.

Searching over Twitter messages is like a filter for what is happening right now—it's an interesting look into the real-time thoughts of people and organizations around the world. Whether you're curious about something specific or you just want to browse the trending topics, we've found that Twitter Search adds a new layer of relevance.

Only accounts that choose to be publicly accessible are included in Twitter Search. However, more than 90% of the folks who use Twitter have decided to make their accounts public. It seems that people, companies, and organizations are discovering there is value in openness. We're looking forward to a full launch once a bunch of us have kicked the tires a bit.

Twitter is growing at a phenomenal rate. Active users have increased 900% in a year and even though our web traffic is amazing, we see twice that traffic to the APIs. Interacting with Twitter over SMS is also getting more popular every day. Our relatively small team of 29 employees has accomplished quite a bit lately but it's obvious that we have the world ahead of us.

An Offer We Couldn't Refuse

We weren't actively seeking more funding because significant capital from last year's partnership with Bijan and his team at Spark is still in the bank. Nevertheless, our strong growth attracted interest and we decided to accept a unique opportunity to make Twitter even stronger with a very attractive offer.

Last night, we closed on funding with our friends Peter Fenton from Benchmark and Todd Chaffee from Institutional Venture Partners. When Ev and I visited IVP we were very impressed and Benchmark's approach regarding teamwork was equally inspiring—every partner is invested in each others success. Peter will be joining our board of directors which means we gain his experience and savvy in addition to that of all his partners.

Big Plans for Twitter, Inc.

We are now positioned extremely well to support the accelerating growth of our service, further enable the robust ecosystem sprouting up around Twitter, and yes, to begin building revenue-generating products. Throughout this year and beyond, our small team will grow much bigger to meet the challenges and opportunities ahead.

Twitter is making a real impact around the world as people, companies, and organizations everywhere discover a powerful new way to communicate and find out what's happening—right now. With these new partnerships and this new funding, we are in a position to move more confidently toward our vision for a robust and successful Twitter, Inc.

Some folks have noticed links from accounts they follow prefaced by the words, "Don't click" which of course people want to click right away. The links take you to a web site employing technique called clickjacking. This technique seeks to trick web users and can take action on your behalf while you perform seemingly unrelated tasks.

As wikipedia states, clickjacking is "A vulnerability across a variety of browsers and platforms, a clickjacking takes the form of embedded code or script that can execute without the user's knowledge, such as clicking on a button that appears to perform another function." In this case that "other function" was posting a link to your Twitter account so that more people could be tricked and the cycle could perpetuate.

Thankfully the harm was restricted to constant reposting of the link, but we take malicious attacks on Twitter users very seriously and this morning we submitted an update which blocks this clickjacking technique.

Don't forget that Twestival is tomorrow. Almost 200 cities around the world will simultaneously host Tweetups and raise money for Charity:Water, a non profit organization bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations by funding sustainable clean water solutions in areas of greatest need.

The Twitter team will be heading over to The Paradise Lounge for the San Francisco Twestival. Is there a Twestival happening in your city? Check the list! If you can't make it, you can still donate. If you have a TipJoy account you can just create a tweet like this p$20 @twestival. You can also represent your city and donate on the Charity:Water site.

There was a sudden burst of news early this week surrounding some ideas we've shared publicly for quite some time. We've been thinking out loud for more than a year about the growing use of Twitter by companies, brands, and other commercial organizations. It's great that both individuals and organizations are finding value in Twitter and there may be ways we can enrich the experience. In fact, we hope to begin iterating on revenue products this year.

However, it's important to note that whatever we come up with, Twitter will remain free to use by everyone—individuals, companies, celebrities, etc. What we're thinking about is adding value in places where we are already seeing traction, not imposing fees on existing services. We are still very early in the idea stage and we don't have anything to share just yet despite a recent surge in speculation. When we do, we'll be sure to let you know.

One of the essential doctrines of Buddhism is Impermanence. The word expresses the notion that everything we can experience through our senses is in flux, constantly changing, and ceasing to be—nothing is permanent. Is there some meaning, therefore, in the sudden disappearance of a Twitter account thought to be the official account of The Office of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama?

There may be a higher meaning if you meditate enough but the account was suspended because it violated our Terms of Use regarding impersonation. Using Twitter to impersonate others in a manner that does or is intended to mislead, confuse, or deceive others is also cited in the Twitter Rules. Should His Holiness decide to take up Twittering for real, we'll be sure to Follow.