Twitter to shutdown Posterous on April 30

Not surprisingly, Twitter has put the kibosh on Posterous, which it acquired just under a year ago. Posterous made its grand appearance in 2008 as a startup offering users the ability to simplify their online sharing using Spaces. Come the end of April, the service will officially be shutdown, including its mobile apps. Fret not, however; two of the company's co-founders are creating an alternative service.

Posterous announced the upcoming shutdown on its blog earlier today, stating that it is a move that allows the company to focus all of its efforts on twitter. Once April 30 rolls around, those who use the service won't be able to edit or view their Spaces, and so users who want to preserve their content should back it up before then.

Backing up Spaces is a rather simple process. Users should navigate to "Posterous.com/#backup," where they'll need to log in if they're not already. Once logged in, the user will then need to select "Request Backup" next to the Space they want to archive. The backup will then be created, and once it is completed, an email will be sent to the address tied to the account. Returning to the backup URL will then present the user with a ZIP file to download containing the Space's content.

According to the folks over at TechCrunch, Posterous's co-founders Garry Tan and Brett Gibson are working on a new service called Posthaven, which they promise will be around forever, specifically saying that it will never be acquired, and that its URLs will always be kept online. The service will cost $5 a month, with users being able to reserve a name now.

[via Posterous]