At this point, I think any action that brings stability to the site would be helpful. Whether that be the owners invest in it to make it more stable or Yahoo! purchases it. However, I would prefer not to see it go to Google.
It's frustrating to me when Twitter goes down. While there are other micro-blogging options that I've toyed with, it's just not the same. I'm trying to determine if that's due to emotional attachment to Twitter or just not wanting to build another network. :-)
Fredrik Johnsen
· 1 year ago
I totally agree with Jennifer. However unstable Twitter might be, I keep coming back, and although I'd obviously like a more stable service, I really can't see myself leaving. Of course, I've said that about a few other services over the years.
I guess I wouldn't reallt mind Yahoo! buying Twitter, but would that change anything, besides the stability? I guess part of Twitter's charm is its tinyness and the fact that it isn't a part of one of the big corporations. And because of that, I can live with the service being down from time to time...
James Fleeting
· 1 year ago
I also agree that something needs to be done about Twitter and its down time. The site has been down a lot recently including a few times where we were told they were doing upgrades to increase stability and then shortly after the site is down again. I love twitter and the network that I have put together so I don't use other services like it. I think if Yahoo! can improve the stability then it would be a huge plus for the community. They have done a great job with Flickr and Upcoming.org.
J.C. Hutchins
· 1 year ago
I'll take Twitter's occasional downtime over its acquisition by Yahoo! any day.
With current job cuts, loss of traction in the adspace and a sinking stock, Yahoo! would certainly benefit from snagging a home run like Twitter. Additionally, Twitter might benefit from the surge in users. But the Yahoo! brand is heading south in my mind, and I think Twitter could find a better (if less profitable) partner for the long haul.
Lastly, let's remember that the Twitter service is provided for free, and it is up and running far more than it's offline.
Kyle Ingrelli
· 1 year ago
Yahoo got it right with del.icio.us. I hope that if Yahoo were to purchase twitter, they would leave their branding out of it. The only benefit I can see (besides profit) for Twitter selling itself to one of the big companies would be stability. Hopefully such a sale wouldn't crush the soul of the twitter network.
Greg Verdino
· 1 year ago
Putting aside whether aquisition might benefit Twitter, I think the bigger question is whether ANY social media acquisition is likely to have a positive impact on Yahoo.
Groups is plenty good and Finance is more than a "hidden gem" it is one of most highly trafficked (and hence most profitable sections.)
But Yahoo has a history of buying and then failing to integrate otherwise great social media tools - cases in point: Flickr, del.icio.us, Jumpcut (which for my money was and IS one of the better video sharing/editing tools available on the web.) With these assets (at least one of which - Flickr - is WIDELY used) it is almost criminal that Yahoo hasn't already evolved its business beyond Portal 1.0 toward really kick-ass integrated social media hub.
Twitter needs help. But buying Twitter isn't likely to help Yahoo if they don't get their act together in a big way. :-)
Fred Brunel
· 1 year ago
Twitter is lucky — even with all its outage, it is still loved by its community — but its too bad to have it down during events like DEMO. Having conversations with people back there is amazing.
I don't know exactly what's their problem with their infrastructure but they definitely need help.
If they need money, why don't they request donations? I'll be happy to give them some bucks.
Sam
· 1 year ago
Yahoo shouldn't be buying anything that doesn't produce cash.
Yahoo has proven an ability to acquire well tractioned early-stage companies and do little to maintain their growth. At the very least, Yahoo needs to make smart purchases that will be reflected in the statement of cash flows, not simply the balance sheet
Twitter's growing pains are charming in an old school kinda way.
The thought of anybody acquiring Twitter doesn't feel good to me as it likely will come with service improvements that'll detract from Twitter's inherent simplicity.
I always tell my kids they have two invisible timers ticking away above their heads; one ticking down to their first partying experience and another marking the time until their first sexual experience. Arguably two things we in the adult world all enjoy and look forward to appropriately, even though both have a tendency to complicate what was once a simpler existence.
As a regular guy I know I can’t prevent my kids from participating in these natural pursuits of growing up, but as a parent my advice has always been to put both of these grownup activities off as long as possible.
Twitter has a timer floating over its head too, counting down the time till they’re gobbled up and rendered an official bauble in the collection of one of the Giants.
My advice is to put it off as long as possible.
Hans Kainz
· 1 year ago
Yes, yes, yes. It would be great for yahoo´s stock quotation and also for the future and expansion of twitter.
Sonia Simone
· 1 year ago
Not only is Twitter down too often, it takes forever to load. I like using it as my browser home page, but I'm constantly on the verge of re-setting it to Google because Twitter's so slow.
I think it needs better resources, and Yahoo is an interesting idea. I agree with Stephanie that I would really prefer it not go to Google.
TDavid
· 1 year ago
No, no, no on Twitter going to Y! and I'm a Y! shareholder. I concur with Sam's comments (#7). Y! needs to use some of their cash to acquire businesses. Twitter isn't a business, it's a feature.
Yes, I know there is a strong community feature but how much of the same crowd does Y! already have with delicious and Flickr? My guess is 75%+. Difference with Twitter is they inherit architecture problems with no revenue plan in place and when/if they add it as Y! people will see it as "Y! evil" instead.
Now if Twitter monetizes, that could change the game.
mike1630
· 1 year ago
My vote is yes :) Yahoo has done a great job with the sites you mentioned about - so, as long as treat twitter like they treat flickr :) it could only help.
julien
· 1 year ago
yahoo needs a way to increase their share price... so yes, very badly.
Shawn K
· 1 year ago
Alright, wrap your head around this. Twitter is very simple and easy to use. What if Apple bought Twitter? Seamlessly integrate it into iChat, make it default on the iPhones, and find a way to make the whole Twitter experience even easier. Is it really so far fetched?
Kat
· 1 year ago
what the heck did you people do before twitter?
Ontario Emperor
· 1 year ago
From Yahoo's perspective, yes. From Twitter's perspective, no.
Yahoo could use the good PR, and the losses at Twitter wouldn't put that big a dent in Yahoo's budget.
However, a Yahoo acquisition of Twitter sounds to me like the Sears acquisition of K-Mart. Putting two troubled companies together does not necessarily result in a strong combination.
Who are the other candidates to purchase Twitter?
Unlike Jennifer Leggio (#1), I wouldn't mind a Google acquisition. Then again, I'm a fairly happy Blogspot user.
If Microsoft were to acquire Twitter, I fear they'd incorporate it into IE or Vista and neglect other browsers and OSes.
My big fear, however, is that a telco will acquire Twitter and make it exclusive to their users, to the exclusion of others.
Steven Hodson
· 1 year ago
What are you trying to do Chris give Twitter the kiss of death? :)
The last thing Yahoo should be doing at this point in their aimless wandering and snacking on anything that catches their eye is be buying anything.
Lee McKusick
· 1 year ago
I think it would be a good move, especially with Google grabbing Jaiku (even if it might seem a bit copycat-ish.) And what people have said about stability is valid too.
I have no qualms with Yahoo or their acquisitions. I say, go for it, Yahoo! =)
compassioninpolitics
· 1 year ago
>>However, I would prefer not to see it go to Google.
I believe that if went to Google, they could solve the reliability problems--which reliability & scalability & visibility are its largest three issues. Google could help in all three.
The search + twitter + productivity app mashup would be sweet.
Google...as long as they didn't go overboard with Adsense or other advertising.
If it went to Yahoo...it might suffer from the same fate that their carpet did. They ran out of money--and they ran out of carpet.
Ewan Spence
· 1 year ago
No they don;t need bought, or accquire, or anything., They just need a good database designer and migrate from Ruby on Rails to PHP or something that's 'mainstream strength.'
Edward Kustoff
· 1 year ago
Twitter needs something, but I'm not certain that's it. Whatever happens, I hope its ad free.
David Petherick
· 1 year ago
Nah. Yahoo need to get what they already have into shape before they make any more acquisitions.
Cisco should buy Twitter.
Jane Quigley
· 1 year ago
I have to say - even with the current and ongoing infrastructure issues - I trust the Twitter team and it's VC's Union Square Ventures. I think that they are figuring it out and while it's extremely frustrating (and maybe naive), I'm keeping the faith.
Mr. Dew
· 1 year ago
I don't think Yahoo should buy Twitter. Instead it would be great if Twitter get bought over by Yahoo. Yahoo can quite easy make a similar service but it's hard to be profitable. Twitter has more and more technical issues recently.
Yumio
· 1 year ago
I wrote a little blog post about how I think Yahoo! is going to try to buy Twitter - maybe sneak it under before they themselves are bought by Microsoft - because all of my former colleagues at Yahoo! are joining Twitter en masse!
All Comments
It's frustrating to me when Twitter goes down. While there are other micro-blogging options that I've toyed with, it's just not the same. I'm trying to determine if that's due to emotional attachment to Twitter or just not wanting to build another network. :-)
I guess I wouldn't reallt mind Yahoo! buying Twitter, but would that change anything, besides the stability? I guess part of Twitter's charm is its tinyness and the fact that it isn't a part of one of the big corporations. And because of that, I can live with the service being down from time to time...
With current job cuts, loss of traction in the adspace and a sinking stock, Yahoo! would certainly benefit from snagging a home run like Twitter. Additionally, Twitter might benefit from the surge in users. But the Yahoo! brand is heading south in my mind, and I think Twitter could find a better (if less profitable) partner for the long haul.
Lastly, let's remember that the Twitter service is provided for free, and it is up and running far more than it's offline.
Groups is plenty good and Finance is more than a "hidden gem" it is one of most highly trafficked (and hence most profitable sections.)
But Yahoo has a history of buying and then failing to integrate otherwise great social media tools - cases in point: Flickr, del.icio.us, Jumpcut (which for my money was and IS one of the better video sharing/editing tools available on the web.) With these assets (at least one of which - Flickr - is WIDELY used) it is almost criminal that Yahoo hasn't already evolved its business beyond Portal 1.0 toward really kick-ass integrated social media hub.
Twitter needs help. But buying Twitter isn't likely to help Yahoo if they don't get their act together in a big way. :-)
I don't know exactly what's their problem with their infrastructure but they definitely need help.
If they need money, why don't they request donations? I'll be happy to give them some bucks.
Yahoo has proven an ability to acquire well tractioned early-stage companies and do little to maintain their growth. At the very least, Yahoo needs to make smart purchases that will be reflected in the statement of cash flows, not simply the balance sheet
http://www.leveragingideas.com
The thought of anybody acquiring Twitter doesn't feel good to me as it likely will come with service improvements that'll detract from Twitter's inherent simplicity.
I always tell my kids they have two invisible timers ticking away above their heads; one ticking down to their first partying experience and another marking the time until their first sexual experience. Arguably two things we in the adult world all enjoy and look forward to appropriately, even though both have a tendency to complicate what was once a simpler existence.
As a regular guy I know I can’t prevent my kids from participating in these natural pursuits of growing up, but as a parent my advice has always been to put both of these grownup activities off as long as possible.
Twitter has a timer floating over its head too, counting down the time till they’re gobbled up and rendered an official bauble in the collection of one of the Giants.
My advice is to put it off as long as possible.
I think it needs better resources, and Yahoo is an interesting idea. I agree with Stephanie that I would really prefer it not go to Google.
Yes, I know there is a strong community feature but how much of the same crowd does Y! already have with delicious and Flickr? My guess is 75%+. Difference with Twitter is they inherit architecture problems with no revenue plan in place and when/if they add it as Y! people will see it as "Y! evil" instead.
Now if Twitter monetizes, that could change the game.
Yahoo could use the good PR, and the losses at Twitter wouldn't put that big a dent in Yahoo's budget.
However, a Yahoo acquisition of Twitter sounds to me like the Sears acquisition of K-Mart. Putting two troubled companies together does not necessarily result in a strong combination.
Who are the other candidates to purchase Twitter?
Unlike Jennifer Leggio (#1), I wouldn't mind a Google acquisition. Then again, I'm a fairly happy Blogspot user.
If Microsoft were to acquire Twitter, I fear they'd incorporate it into IE or Vista and neglect other browsers and OSes.
My big fear, however, is that a telco will acquire Twitter and make it exclusive to their users, to the exclusion of others.
The last thing Yahoo should be doing at this point in their aimless wandering and snacking on anything that catches their eye is be buying anything.
I have no qualms with Yahoo or their acquisitions. I say, go for it, Yahoo! =)
I believe that if went to Google, they could solve the reliability problems--which reliability & scalability & visibility are its largest three issues. Google could help in all three.
The search + twitter + productivity app mashup would be sweet.
Google...as long as they didn't go overboard with Adsense or other advertising.
If it went to Yahoo...it might suffer from the same fate that their carpet did. They ran out of money--and they ran out of carpet.
Cisco should buy Twitter.