Has the Twitter Fail Whale finally been tamed? Maybe not, but Twitter HQ reports that it has rarely been sighted in the past four-and-a-half weeks. According to today's Twitter newsletter, the messaging service experienced 99.88% uptime in August, and so far this month the service is showing 99.96% availability. It's not the "five nines" that most communications services shoot for, but it's surely a lot better than the situation earlier in the year, when Twitter downtime was a regular fact of life for many users.

On the other hand, Twitter did not have to contend with major technology conferences or news events in August. That won't last. Everyone is back from vacation, and soon it will be MacWorld again. While it's too early to predict how Twitter will scale, another "Thar she blows!" episode is not out of the question.

More news, commentary, and predictions from The Industry Standard:

• Prediction: Twitter attracts 2 million U.S. visitors per month by July '08
• Analysis: Is Twitter worth $75 million? $150 million? How about none of the above?
• Analysis: Just 200,000 active Twitter users?
• Analysis: Twitter: Fanatical users help build the brand, but not revenue
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