chrisbrogan.com - Latest Comments in Why Twitter Still Wins

Re: Why Twitter Still Wins

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Re: Why Twitter Still Wins

youtube downloader — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 10:30:49 -0000

One way to win in software is to make your application fertile for building upon. Open your API. Give people tools to build an ecosystem around it. And it becomes a lot harder to pull away and go elsewhere.

Re: Why Twitter Still Wins

Free Movie Posters — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 08:37:00 -0000

Why didn't Google buy Twitter? I think Twitter was more happening than Jaiku. Twitter has less effort to join for everyone, rather than Jaiku which needs invitation. I have a guess that Twitter is more profitable, but by all means, Google has the money.

Re: Why Twitter Still Wins

erwin blom — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 16:21:34 -0000

Jaiku was hip and hot and happening. Since Google bought the service no new developments, nothing. A shame. Seems to be the story when Google buys you.

Re: Why Twitter Still Wins

andy brudtkuhl — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 14:58:07 -0000

Mine was deleted for no reason as well. They claim I was violating TOS.. but I'm just a normal user..

http://getanewbrowser.com/2...

Re: Why Twitter Still Wins

Louis Columbus — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 14:09:56 -0000

ebrown, exactly! I think that is part of Twitter's popularity. Visiting Twitter is like driving through Guadalupe and seeing the ecletic people and ideas. Having grown up in the Southwest and visited Santa Fe I can readily relate to your allegory. Part of Twitter's appeal is the chance to hang out and be yourself, but mostly it is to learn from eclectic and interesting people.

Re: Why Twitter Still Wins

ebrown — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 13:57:02 -0000

I've just returned from a holiday in the Land of Enchantment, where I grew up. You have touched on something: community trumps interface. I liken Twitter (which has been practically unusable by me for several months) and other, prettier social networking tools to two communities in Santa Fe. The southside Guadalupe community has a long Hispano tradition. The neighborhood is home to workers and their families who have struggled and succeeded in remaining in Santa Fe as generation of their families have before them, despite poverty, rising cost of living (cost of living in Santa Fe is comparable to the Bay Area but wages are about half), and the ravages of drugs, crime, and poverty. The community is vibrant: a thriving arts community (many Hispano artists work in traditional styles and genres; recently a large statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe, an international artwork, combining artists from the Guadalupe community in Santa Fe and artists in Mexico, was brought to the neighborhood, with a resulting fiestas and community excitement) is drawing gentrifiers to the neighborhood. Las Campanas, on the other hand, is a gorgeous planned and gated community. Jack Nicklaus golf courses, equestrian trails, spas, gyms, etc. But it's not a community, despite the advertising. No one wants to go there to see or make art. I've driven past on my way to other places of interest; it's not one of them.

"Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence. "

Re: Why Twitter Still Wins

Matthew DT Thompson — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 13:31:25 -0000

Goes back to Eric Raymond's piece, "Cathedral and the Bazaar". Same concept regarding the difference between Linux and MSoft...

I can watch you play with your toys, or you can let me play too...which sandbox would YOU prefer to be in?

Re: Why Twitter Still Wins

shokk — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 12:56:51 -0000

What limits does FriendFeed place?

Re: Why Twitter Still Wins

deeped — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 12:28:22 -0000

One Swede, have worked out a plugin (http://jaiku.lemonad.org/) for Jaiku that make it much more usable than before - and the m.jaiku.com is nifty on the Iphone/IpodTouch as well as the S60-app on Jaiku is much better than say twibble.

Re: Why Twitter Still Wins

Alexander — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 12:12:37 -0000

"BUT, there are no real tools for Jaiku. There’s no Summize. There’s no Tweetstats. There’s no Twitter ANYTHING built around it."

You forgot: http://jaiku.lemonad.org/ + Firefox add-on Jaikungfu.

Jaiku wins IMO because everything I need is right there. Jaiku's threads creates dialogues that Twitter never can do on their own without Summize (now Twitter search) or Friendfeed help.

Re: Why Twitter Still Wins

Kevin Merritt — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 12:09:30 -0000

At some point any successful social network's core asset shifts from its technology, features or capabilities to the network itself. It's Metcalfe's Law kicking in. Social networks die because they never reach the ignition point for Metcalfe's Law to start working. In twitter's case, the API accelerated the service toward's ignition of Metcalfe's Law by letting 3rd party developers create applications that the people at twitter hadn't thought of or didn't have the resources to build. Open systems win over the long run, and an API is part of being open.

Re: Why Twitter Still Wins

Anton — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 11:54:47 -0000

In my point of view, Jaiku is a better platform and therefore don't need all these "apps" to be kick-ass.

And, as deeped pointing out, Jaiku is more open for discussions then Twitter. And that's why the most interesting Twitter posts beeing a discussion thread on Friendfeed and the most interesting Jaiku posts stay at Jaiku.

Re: Why Twitter Still Wins

Louis Columbus — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 11:46:05 -0000

Chris,

Your post captures the conflicting priorities Twitter faces. Opening up the APIs and promoting an open architecture, doing their best to nurture an ecosystem, was essential for growth. Paradoxically being too open and growing too fast has caused confusion in Twitter. Cancelling passionate supporters’ accounts, capping follower figures, and other inconsistencies in how they operate show there aren’t clearly defined processes for how to handle these scalability challenges. That is the paradox of building an ecosystem that has taken off so fast.

Personally, Twitter is a great learning tool. I am amazed at the amount of knowledge some people put out. I follow people to learn form them and also be entertained, and stay connected with people I’ve met in person. In all of these interactions, from a Twitter standpoint, a viable business model hasn’t emerged yet.

The catalyst for Twitter’s economic growth must be the ecosystem, building that out and adding to its functionality while turning scalability into a non-issue. It would be great to chart the incidence of Fail Whale screens to the growth of developers, because the latter will pressure Twitter to solve scalability issues quickly.

Re: Why Twitter Still Wins

Julian Seery Gude — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 11:17:52 -0000

Twitter used to be great and so ARE all the extra software apps but I've already reached the point where ALL that good stuff has been overcome by the BAD.

You're in a different world Chris and you know it. Because of your huge following on Twitter you would never leave Twitter. In your position I wouldn't either.

But for normal social media users like myself Twitter isn't worth it anymore. The only reason I'm not 100% on Plurk right now is because it doesn't have SMS support. Instead I'm using Jaiku as a twitter alternative because it does the job reliably, HAS the extra features I use and appreciate (like comments) and amazingly it WORKS.

I looked the other way with Twitter and all their problems for the last 12 months and now I'm done. After that many problems for that length of time I have no choice but to accept that the Twitter organization is unhealthy. They can't get it together and that's sad for all of us.

Re: Why Twitter Still Wins

deeped — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 11:14:05 -0000

...The greatness of Twitter isn't the service in itself but the fluid API that make mashups easy to innovate...

Re: Why Twitter Still Wins

deeped — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 11:12:54 -0000

I think it's hard to compare Jaiku with Twitter since in my usage they have grown in different ways. As part of the Swedish "social media bubble" (we still are in some sort of pioneering/early adopterstage generally in Sweden) the Jaiku is a new sort of "discussionforum" since it work very seamlessly in threading the replies on a post. Twitter is in my point of view much more "microblog" in the sense of the posts is on their own. Identi.ca is interesting in the sense of being open source-software that means that I could use it (in the future) to set up internal micro-blogging services for my customers - but as a clone of Twitter it serves no new functionality in my perspective, neither do Plurk nor Pownce. Al Ries 1st in market-rule is important, and to be remarkable the new micro-blogservices will have to do something more than the runner ups we've seen up til now.

Re: Why Twitter Still Wins

Scott Leamon — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 11:08:23 -0000

All Twitter users (myself included) suffer from Stockholm Syndrome. We are in love with the Fail Whale!

It's become quite obvious over the last few months that there is very little incentive (monetarily) for "Twitter, Inc." to stabilize the platform.

The best thing for the 'community' would be for some monolith to come along and gobble it up. Sure, give the reigns to Google. Not much has changed at YouTube since the acquisition (the board of directors at Google would also agree!! ha!).

I can live with ads (that i pay no attention to anyhow) as a trade off for a stable platform with money in the coffers to sustain and grow.

Re: Why Twitter Still Wins

Connie Crosby — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 10:24:09 -0000

Just discovered I'm one of the ones who lost her account. I'm one of Twitter's biggest supporters, was one of the top-followed librarians online and have promoted the service to others.

Twitter customer for 1 1/12 years, had brought together over 1500 followers (I was following over 1400). I am upset if I have been penalized for other people wanting to follow me. I was not online last night so didn't know it had been suspended.

Thanks for staying on top of this for us.

Cheers,
Connie

Re: Why Twitter Still Wins

Elliott Ng — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 10:11:28 -0000

Jaiku just doesn't even care anymore. I tried to sign up and have been waiting for my invite for over 4-5 months!

Well, I don't care and I'm entrenched in Twitter cause that is where my social graph is most fully expressed/developed.

Re: Why Twitter Still Wins

bitpakkit — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 09:10:20 -0000

For me, starting with an API and partner strategy is absolutely critical, almost first. Dogfood your partner approach to build your own platform and once you have determined you are ready, open up that API and platform so that others can consume you as a media endpoint. If we agree that experiences are decentralized then this is the only model that rolls going forward.

Re: Why Twitter Still Wins

Michael Durwin — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 08:50:50 -0000

With all of it's failings, Twitter captured our imaginations and attention enough that it created a new industry, much like an iPod. Microsoft's Zune had features we would have liked, iPod had publicized equipment failures yet it still dominated. Twitter will be different in that it's failures are felt on a global scale. The smart move for Google would be to just purchase Twitter and stabilize the damn back end. While I don't like the idea of one company owning all of this stuff, I'm so Google dependant already that it wouldn't make much impact.

Re: Why Twitter Still Wins

Is Link Building with Director — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 08:50:45 -0000

I love Twitter, it really is cool and super easy, when it behaves :-)
Thanks,
JR

Re: Why Twitter Still Wins

David Tinney - no BS or Hype A — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 08:41:18 -0000

Chris,

Spot on, mate! I haven't used Jaiku so I cannot compare. I like your use of the word ecosystem, it's on target and appropriate. Twitter is here to stay, that's my prediction.

Cheers!
David Tinney
David Tinney - no BS or Hype Allowed

Re: Why Twitter Still Wins

A3Munier — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 08:39:33 -0000

good write-up (as expected;) what's your take on www.twittersqueeze.com?