Boy, did I want to write this post. For a long, long time. But I never got around to do it. If I wasn’t working, you guessed it, I was twittering.
Expect “twittering” to line up next to “googling” as a new word in the dictionary any time soon. It’s not just a new social Web app, it is a rocket booster of a pop phenomenon.
It is hard to tell when exactly that point emerges, when a product, person, brand or name reaches this point of critical mass. But it has typically reached that point when literally everybody is talking about it. It is that moment when you can read about it in mainstream media, and when your dad calls you and asks you if that is what you’re doing. That’s the moment when you know, something has been taking off really.
It was like that for terms like Web 2.0, Myspace, Google, Amazon and the iPod. And it’s undeniable now that all these names, companies, brands or things have settled deeply in the mindset of the average consumer. Ask anyone on the street, and they will know what Google is. They don’t need to own a computer to know it.
A number of smart people have already talked about Twitter, written articles and essays, and elaborated on what Twitter what Twitter is and how it works. Most conclude in unison that Twitter is easy to use and a lot of fun. But try explaining it until you really used it. You can try, but it will always be a blurry image of the actual experience. Twitter is a lot about the experience.
No one, not even Twitter’s founder, could possibly estimate or explain beforehand how Twitter would pull off, and why. My guess is, they just had a hunch about doing the right thing, and Twitter prove them right. If something is proven this way, by people using it around the clock, and numbers of users growing exponentially, what better way do you know to demonstrate this was a brilliant idea?
Twitter is not used by individuals only. You will find companies like Adaptive Path, Technorati and even the Bay Area’s BART have started twittering. Among its most famous adopters are Steve Jobs, Jeffrey Zeldman and iJustine.
Aside of all the hype, joy and simple fun people get out of Twitter, I made a couple of thoughts on my own. I too can enjoy Twitter without analyzing it too much. It simply works, and it works beautifully. But I wouldn’t be me if I wouldn’t want to know why it actually works. What makes this a brilliant idea?
- In my opinion, Twitter hits the nerve of what makes a good Web application. Why?
- Because I think for now, in our time, it is just the right balanced amount of aggregating, delivering and consuming chunks of information
- These chunks are consumable bites, small enough to create a constant flow of get and give
- With our habits and behavior patterns changing, maybe this alone won’t be enough for Twitter to remain attractive in future, but for now it is
- What makes Twitter work at its core is its unobtrusive push- and pull effect, which is carried by your existing network of real life contacts and friends
- Twitter doesn’t stick to a website, it is a lot more interactive than most social apps are
- It isn’t a social website that makes you fill out lengthy profiles or forces you to adapt to a given grid of content offerings
- It doesn’t define what you do with it, but restricts your data format to 140 signs
- It can do one thing only, but does this quite well
- It has an open interface that works with multiple communication channels and devices
In an interview at SXSW, Twitter’s founders made an emphasis about this point. Being open in all directions, creating connection points on multiple devices, is a crucial point to them. I think we will see a lot more happening in this direction soon, with websites leaving the Web, taking their capabilities beyond the browser and starting to get a foot in our daily lives. With Web 2.0, the Web has actually found back to its mission, its true meaning. It is all about connections. So the cell phone is just another interface, which doesn’t work the way it should now, but real Web apps haven’t really started yet to appear on cell phones. Leaders like Nokia and new kid on the block, Apple, are joining Google, Yahoo! and others to make your phone a more useful device. The key element here is to make the device work with your needs and habits, and not just focus on creating a better Web browsing experience.
I am also working on a concept that incorporates cell phones, which will take some of the functionality you know from websites and provide connection points in daily life, for real life situations.
You aren’t always sitting in front of your computer, but your cell phone is always in your pocket. It is about time cell phones run more than browsers and email, to do more than calling up movie times or train schedules. Cell phones are communication devices, and despite the fact they were bogging users down with superfluous features (like that useless Moto Midi sound mixer on my Motorola Razr), cell phones are now following the Web, entering a new age of change. One could well call it Cell 2.0. Do you think I should trademark that?
Resources
TwitterTwitterrific
Yeah, it’s a pretty interesting concept. I guess it brings the world closer in a way: if you’re sharing a house with someone, then you probably know roughly what they’re doing a lot of the time. Now you can get the same effect across big distances. But I wonder if ‘the masses’ will pick it up (as they have with, say Googling) or it will be confined mainly to heavy web users and geeks. Some people love interacting with their computers. A large proportion of people really don’t like it too much or at best are neutral. Will Twitter pull any of these guys in?
Ben, March 18, 2007 05:59 PM
This article has some great tips on how to use Twitter in different, productive ways: http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/twitter-use-it-productively.html
Ben, March 19, 2007 01:38 PM
Twitter is not limited to the Web. It is the first social app I discovered that lets me stay in touch with friends, also when I’m not online. In fact, the terminologies of being online, of real life and online life, are in a process of changing right now, due to these new transitional Web apps.
Henning, March 20, 2007 12:14 PM
It is interesting to see the many uses for Twitter. I have found Celebritytwitter, a site that follows the life of hollywood celebrities online. Is this a sign that Twitter is going mainstream? I have also noticed that you can hardly register anything with Twitter in the name. I give it 2 months before it gets bought by Yahoo! or Google.
Keith Fletcher, March 21, 2007 05:14 AM