WebProNews

Anecdotal evidence and personal experience are all well and good, especially where popularity contests are concerned.  Hard data works, too, though, and Hitwise's Heather Hopkins has weighed in with stats on how Twitter is doing.

The good news for Twitter fans is that U.S. Internet visits to the site are increasing, and in the last couple of months, have increased at a particularly impressive-looking rate.  The bad news is, as Hopkins writes, "[T]he site ranked #439 among Social Networks and Forums last week and #4309 among All Categories of websites."

 Hitwise Weighs In On Twitter's Growth

She admits, "Twitter's size is notoriously difficult to measure as there are so many access points (mobile phones in particular).  However, the website traffic data does give some idea of the rate of growth and also reveals that the service still hasn't reached mainstream adoption."

Twitter's supporters still have some work to do, then, if their goal is to make Twitter as common a thing as AIM or MySpace.  The roughly $15 million the company might have raised (or might be in the process of raising) could help, too, of course.

Regardless, Hopkins has promised to keep an eye on things, and we'll do the same.