Twitter’s first prototype was built as an internal service for employees of Odeo.
The project began in 2006 at Odeo, a podcasting company founded by Evan Williams and Noah Glass. During a company brainstorming session, Jack Dorsey proposed using text messages to share short status updates with a small group. Dorsey and contractor Florian Weber then developed an early prototype for Odeo’s staff to test internally.
The service was initially called “twttr,” partly because Flickr had popularized a vowel-free brand name and because American SMS short codes commonly used five digits. Twitter’s first public version launched on July 15, 2006, several months after internal testing began.
A common mix-up is confusing Odeo with Obvious Corporation. Odeo was the company whose employees tested the prototype. In October 2006, Odeo founders and Twitter’s early team formed Obvious Corporation and acquired Odeo and its assets from investors. Twitter later separated into its own company in 2007.