In a touch of classic irony, the speed at which Twitter has been able to grow is also resulting in increased downtime and update trouble, which is slowly turning people off the service, reports TechCrunch. This opens the door for competitors like Jaiku to come a-courting.

In a sea of new Web startups competing for user attention, Jaiku rises to the surface. While it lacks Twitter's scale, Jaiku, which performs the same functions, also lacks Twitter's scalability trouble.

The Twitter-alternative touts more features than its rival, like tools for integrating external sources including weather, headlines and blogs, reports InformationWeek.

Both sites are considered "microblogs," or services that enable users to rapidly type out and publish short messages to the Web via PC or mobile phone.

Jaiku is just out of the gate with its launch and attracts around 40,000 visitors, miniscule compared to Twitter's millions. However, Jaiku believes its lead in the features department will give it the edge.