An Observation About Twitter
I just surfed my way onto This is going to be BIG!, which has a post titled The Future of Twitter: Five Applications to Think About.
I haven’t gotten the chance to really use Twitter yet, so I’m witholding judgement one way or the other about it. But I will say this: when you see blog post after blog post inventing possible usage scenarios for an application, it’s not a positive sign.
If the case for use is really there, nobody has to create lists for it. It’s self-apparent. If people are creating lists, it’s a sign that they like the app, but they can’t find a convincing, necessary use case for it in their lives.
I speak here out of personal experience.
That said, I plan on trying Twitter out, and I hope I like it. It would be such a drag to be one of those Twitter-Haters.
June 13th, 2007 at 4:06 am
“when you see blog post after blog post inventing possible usage scenarios for an application, it’s not a positive sign…”
Oh yeah, because I’d rather have a business where people say, “This is the only think your technology could possibly ever do, and if it doesn’t succeed in doing that, you’re totally screwed.”
Twitter is a platform… a very flexible platform that has more potential than just purely as a person to person sms communications tool… and it has the potential to create a lot of value in a number of areas, but it is very very early in its development at this point, so its hardly a bad thing to ponder all the possible potentials that it has. Very few successful startups stuck to their original plan 100%, so putting out potential paths to think about, and having more of them that make sense, is hardly a bad thing.
June 13th, 2007 at 5:26 am
“it is very very early in its development at this point, so its hardly a bad thing to ponder all the possible potentials that it has”
Of course - and I’m not critiquing your post per se. Fine post, good ideas. I’m speaking about the aggregate voice on the web saying “here are some possible uses for twitter”. When you see that happening, it’s an indication that nobody has really found one overriding use for the app, including the makers themselves.
That doesn’t necessarily spell doom for an app, and I don’t know if it will prove to be important or not for Twitter. As I said, I haven’t used Twitter much and I’m not judging it one way or another.
This is just pattern recognition.
As far as whether Twitter is a platform — I like Marc Andreessen’s comments on what make something a platform versus an app, in his recent post on Facebook. I would say Twitter is an app, not a platform.