Twitter: still not getting it
This bit from Read/Write/Web gestures at what I still am missing about twitter: what else is there? I disliked getting the text messages when I was “following”. It’s a shortcode with an API and it’s easy to update - I still see twitter as a set of features that could be absorbed by a larger network.
Poll: Will Your Mom & Dad Ever Use Twitter?
Please convince me below - I don’t hate twitter, but I’m having a hard time with why I should care.
4 comments
I’m having a hard time understanding why the perpetual concern for Twitter relevancy — let’s move on to WordPress as a CMS solution, now.
Twitter is perpetually held up as a slowly evolving and brilliant platform for the distribution of information… wordpress is much more established in that regard.
Wordpress is awesome.
Hey Tim — agreed, I’m not sure shoveling headlines onto twitter is all that groundbreaking. There are other sites out there using the Twitter API to do interesting things — some of them local. I wrote that up last week here: http://www.joethink.com/blog/2008/02/twitter-based-local-web-apps-are-another-way-newsrooms-can-use-twitter/
I don’t think any one person can explain or convince someone that twitter is a solution for anything. But a few years ago people didn’t fully understand myspace/facebook either. I’m still in University, and having shown twitter to a ton of journalism students, 90% of them don’t get it, or didn’t use it after the first login. Heck, my sister just uses it to keep track of me! But anyways…
You mentioned in “Ten Web Sites/Services that I Abandoned in 2007″ that tumblr fit your needs for microblogging more. I don’t think the two are remotely comparable in the end. While the core function of twitter is commonly describes as a “status updater” much like the status feature of Facebook, in the end it’s really about the network that is built around it.
Twitter can be extremely powerful. Some take it more socially like a micro-IM service, others as a social business model, keeping them more up-to-date or utilizing the api to maximize an application or a service.
It’s mobile networking, and while it’s driven by a train of people who might be considered “insane” by the “i don’t get it crowd,” it can be a very powerful tool to those who use it.
I use it more or less because my roots stem from web development, and the geek community around me is immensely active on twitter. From there I follow specific applications, blogs, and only use the SMS option to follow a few key people (i.e. people I work with frequently or have a specific interest) which maximizes communication through the content delivery.
Seeing it as a set of features which could be absorbed by a larger network is pretty accurate, but the point behind it is that it’s not part of the larger network. It’s agile and out there on it’s own. The API gives a direct factor of personal control/use. I’ve seen time tracking applications which use twitter as the input source, or gas milage trackers so you know what your car is really getting to the gallon, and services use it as a notification system so the content comes to you.
Also, one common thing with twitter is people always go to the website. I would NEVER use it if I ever went to the website. There are a slew of desktop native options and mobile applications which bring twitter to me, so I’m not in need of SMS or checking the website, ever.
But end the end, if you don’t have a need for the social-community function behind twitter, I guess it really serves no function to the common user. And SMS updates can indeed be annoying. I subscribed to a few newspaper twitter feeds, that lasted about an hour before I was just pissed off at the all crap that kept coming across it.
No, my parents would never use it. I know a ton of journalism people who in theory live the epitome of tech/geek culture, but don’t understand the reasoning behind an RSS feed. In truth, twitter feels like it’s written for geeks, the shortcut codes/commands like @username goes right over most peoples heads at first glance. http://www.pownce.com is a much more usable system for the average person. It allows file sharing, video, photo, events, grouping of messages, but lacks in popularity and community support so it will probably never bring itself up to twitter, unless twitter goes down for a ridiculous amount of time back to back, which is completely possible.
Sorry for the poorly constructed rant. I just started typing and off the top of my head, this is what came out. I’m not even going to read it over for fear I’d rewrite it 25 times to make more sense.
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