There's something abuzz in the social media space lately that you may have heard of. www.twitter.com is a new-ish 'micro-blogging' service that allows you keep tabs on those people you are 'following' and to allow your followers to keep tabs on you.
Make sense yet? Didn't think so.
If you are a user of Facebook or LinkedIn, you have already seen something similar in action. Close to your profile picture (to the right in FB or underneath in LI) you can fill in the blank as to what you are doing e.g. [Brett is .... doing the dishes] . Simple enough, and generally used for inane, humorous or philosophical statements about your being.
Twitter takes this to the next level, and the users (called 'Tweets') are much, much more imaginative at what they post on their updates. It can be as simple as what you had for lunch, or there can be even more interesting tidbits such as links to interesting websites, stories, images and so on. People will also usually give their opinion on things, quick one-off reviews, quotes, news etc. but within a concise and quippy single sentence.
When you sign up to Twitter, you create a basic profile (like every other social media site) with simple personal details and a photo of yourself. Then you can invite other people from your various email lists by providing Twitter with user account info to say Hotmail, Gmail and the like.
I opted against this as I already bombard my current contact list with initiations to LinkedIn, Plaxo, Xing, FastPitch, e-cademy etc. and judging by the types of users on Twitter (early-adopters, formerly known as lovable geeks) corporate contacts wouldn't be ready to start using this, yet. But spreading the word virally is the lifeblood of social networking startups, so at some point I will, when the time is right.
If you get into Twitter (I am still a newbie .. or n00b as they say) you can see how it can become addictive. It can also work via mobile (web or sms and now even instant messenger) and allow you to update your 'happenings' wherever you are, or receive updates from those you have chosen to follow as they come through. I have yet to turn on the 'receive updates on your mobile' option, as I suspect even getting updates from following a mere 6 people would drive me crazy with constant text message beeping on my Nokia.
I think there is a good future for Twitter in many circles. Its obviously catchy and for the early adopters a great conversation starter. I can see loads of applications already in the marketplace to allow you to interact with Twitter and I am willing to bet there are dozens and dozens of ideas spinning off this new communication methodology (think flirting, networking, tracking etc.).
The only downside to Twitter at the moment is its server reliability. With the hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of users updating all over the place, I am not surprised there would be challenges. Also I am of the understanding that Twitter was built using Ruby on Rails, a rapid application development language and framework that wasn't initially meant to scale to 'enterprise' heights. I could be wrong, but maybe the Twitgineers might want to rethink the platform before getting a globe of Tweets hammering away at the service.
Overall I think its a cool little trendy tool that people will flock to and use for a while - but will it have legs or will it be just another pet rock? Time, they say, will surely tell.
Opinion:
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Uniqueness: 3/5
Interest Factor: 3/5
Stability: 2/5
User Experience: 4/5
Longevity: 3/5
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