Twitter buys Mixer Labs to map tweeting locations

SAN FRANCISCO: Twitter is buying a startup called Mixer Labs in an effort to pinpoint the locations of people posting short messages on its service.

Financial terms of the deal announced Wednesday weren't disclosed.

Mixer Labs, founded by a couple of former Google employees, developed a location-tracking tool called GeoAPI.

Twitter CEO Evan Williams thinks GeoAPI could prove helpful by showing where people are as they share what they are seeing or experiencing.

About 58 million people around the world use Twitter, which accommodates messages of no more than 140 characters.

Twitter, based in San Francisco, has raised about $155 million from investors since its 2006 inception.