Once upon a time, Wordpress was one of many little blogging platforms a person could choose to use. Today, it’s the top dog in the world of blogging. What allowed it to crush the competition and to become such a powerful force online?

Part of it was the simple fact that it’s a good product. It works and it works well.

There was something else at play, too, though. It was a collection of coders and fans who developed a massive array of plug-ins and widgets to increase the utility and functionality of Wordpress.

Today, Twitter is following the Wordpress success plan. They’ve made their API available and now we’re seeing the creation of dozens of tool designed to make Twitter user easier and more productive.

Do you need the tools to use Twitter? No. You don’t need Askiment to run Wordpress, either. Those extras, however, make the tools more functional and a lot more attractive.

Twitter continues to grow. That’s definitely being encouraged by some great third-party tool developments.