It all started with a “stupid” idea and a message about pinot noir.

Two of the founders of Twitter Inc., Evan Williams and Biz Stone, talked about how the micro-blogging service began, the challenges it faced and an eventual potential IPO, at Startup School, an event organized by Y Combinator held at the University of California-Berkeley on Saturday.

In 2006, Jack Dorsey and Biz Stone had an assignment at podcasting start-up Odeo, along with everyone else at the company, to build something new over two weeks.

Dorsey drew up a simple sketch of a text-entry box with the word “Status” above it and the domain name, my.stat.us.

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Even a few years ago the word “blog” inspired that peculiar mix of derision and dismissal that seems to haunt new media innovations long after they’re proven. A blogger was a lonely, pajama-clad person in a dark room, typing out banal musings he mistook for interesting ones, to be read by a handful of friends or strangers if they were read at all.

That blogs have now become a fixture of media and culture might, you’d think, give critics pause before indulging in another round of new media ridicule. But it ain’t so.

Twitter, the micromessaging service where users broadcast short thoughts to one another, has been widely labeled the newest form of digital narcissism. And if it’s not self-obsession tweeters are accused of, it’s self-promotion, solipsism or flat out frivolousness.

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Tragic events unfolded yesterday as a group of British skiers became separated from two of their party in the Swiss resort of Verbier. The rescue operation took on a global perspective when members of the party–a group of U.K. technology entrepreneurs–used the microblogging site Twitter in trying to locate the missing skiers. Despite the concerted efforts of the online community and the mountain rescue teams, developments which were instantly relayed on Twitter, one of the skiers, co-founder of Dolphin Music Rob Williams, died in the incident.

The sad events have highlighted the ways in which online and mobile tools can be harnessed to help travelers in emergency situations. A Twitter update by one of the group, trying to find the mobile number of the second stranded skier, Dolphin Music co-founder Jason Tavaria, was re-tweeted across the site. In the following hours, a combination of GPS, Google Maps and signals returned from his iPhone may well have helped save his life–Tavaria was found alive by mountain rescue.

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You’ve probably heard how much the microblogging service Twitter can help your business, or that being on social-networking site Facebook can boost your company’s profile. But what you might not have considered is the potential danger in over-relying on these start-ups that could go out of business, get bought out, or close your account if you aren’t familiar with their Terms of Service.

In terms of growth, both Twitter and Facebook are booming, with Twitter growing by 600 percent and Facebook nearly tripling in users in the past year. Both companies rely on venture funding to survive. Facebook has been bringing in revenues from advertising; Twitter hasn’t yet clarified how it will bring in money.

The brand value of both companies is rising, as you could see on TV during the inauguration when stations such as CNN were touting Twitter feeds and Facebook pages. But as more newbies pour their time and attention into these online services, can they be certain that the services will survive in the long haul?

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It appears that micro-blogging service Twitter has removed the option to delete a “tweet” once it’s been published, making the service a haven for digital litter–the trail of information about you or things you’ve said that perhaps you shouldn’t leave lying around the Web.

Publish a status update on Twitter slamming your boss–at 2 a.m. in the morning after a night out at the pub–only to regret doing so seconds after hitting the “update” button, then you could be out of luck. As of yesterday (?) the trash can icon that used to reside next to Twitter updates has been removed.

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