Could Twitter be "MySpaced"?
markevanstech.com
Could Twitter be supplanted by something new and different? It would be a huge challenge but it's possible.
markevanstech.com
However I believe the micro blogging platform should be treated like email. An open messaging system that can be adopted by anyone and defines an underlying protocol so that we can send messages between all micro blogging sites. I have a gmail account, do I really want to create a hotmail account to email someone with a hotmail domain? If I have a twitter account and someone has an rstat.us account then perhaps I want to message them.
I think anyone who did decides to take on the task of turning micro blogging into an open messaging platform would need to look beyond just integrating sign ons. Think of smtp.
edit: I missed this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenMicroBlogging
The next generation may reject social altogether - and not want to be tracked and recorded 24/7.
It will eventually get old, either from a quick death (rejection of social altogether) or a slow death (commodification; Facebook/social media becoming a platform, like email).
I don't know about this.
Firstly, I would have thought search users would be fickle; but people stick to Google: familiarity is a huge factor for mainstream consumer franchises (Buffett goes on about Coke, Wrigly Chewing Gum etc) as opposed to early-adopter tech folk; Google goes to enormous lengths for good PR and visibility (mainly by actually doing good, which is nice); despite complaints, Google does its job (relevant results; very fast), and keeps improving. If a commodity like search can be sticky, why not social media?
Secondly, a social networking service is intrinsically harder for users to change, because you are connected to other people. Of course, it has to do its basic job well; you have to keep improving it; you need good PR. In other words, it's your game to lose.
I'm not sure why MySpace failed, but I think part of it was targeting teens/young people (who like change, both in adopting the new and in then discarding it), e.g. via bands, which is also hit/fad oriented. I think facebook's uni students are less dangerous in this sense, because they more often want to keep in contact after graduating (compared with teenagers), and facebook have worked hard to grow out of that dangerously fashionable zone anyway.
warning: this post contains guesses.
Where as social is just that its whats cool/hip and something your friends are using. I think you underestimate the value of virility. Services like Instagram and Tumblr, are all very good services that are social and could possibly unseat what we see now. People and not just in the tech circle are always trying out new cool/hip social services. If some users think its cool, convince their friends to join and the cycle starts over.
Maybe. I think it varies with age group, as I was saying. I think people in their teen's and 20's are more interested in what's cool/hip. Certainly, for social services in that teen/20's demographic, I think you're right.
Older people, people with spouses, people with young children, people with mortgages, people with established careers and groups of friends and clubs and routines. Well, I think maybe the value of virility is less there. I'm not saying it's a good thing.
Twitter is already boiled down to its essence.
1. Pick a niche (college kids)
2. Build what they want
3. Let it trickle down (high school) or up (grandma) or out (businesses) to gain mass.
So while we can't pick the winner, we know what the winner is going to do.
I think the problem here is that when you start big and work backwards it's hard to build exactly what a particular niche wants. For example, starting backwards you never would have built the perfect tool for bands (myspace) or college kids (facebook) because you want it to have mass appeal.
E.g. the only way to communicate with someone without polluting your timeline (because who really cares what you @replied to someone) is DMing them, and even that is less convenient than even facebook messages. But no one uses DMs for most conversations so I have to go without following some awesome people just because they @reply massively and I have scroll fatigue already.
Another example – twitter's website has no new @mention notifications, and my SO accidentally discovered this feature when she downloaded Tweetie months after she started tweeting.
No wonder twitter's user retention rate sucks.
I see a lot of Shaun's tweets starting with @someuser, e.g. http://twitter.com/#!/shauninman/status/59266889741905920 http://twitter.com/#!/shauninman/status/59254473125666816 http://twitter.com/#!/shauninman/status/59237467353657344 http://twitter.com/#!/shauninman/status/58999188649807872 and I don't follow him or any of these guys
A few years ago, the micro-blogging community was not big enough for a second player. Now it is, and Twitter will change or be overtaken by a more compelling alternative.
The simplicity of Twitter was once its strength, but like any technology, it must grow to meet the demands of its users. Facebook added chat, photos, a compelling platform, etc... Twitter is dead in the water right now.
Who wants to remember silly @handles? There isn't even a directory of official Twitter handles for companies.
Private group message applications are sprouting up everywhere - Twitter is just plodding along unaware that this is a huge need.
Who wants to see hideous bit.ly links instead of actual content?
Is 140 characters really the future? I doubt it.
Are third party services really necessary to embed media? Do users really need to figure out how to tape together 10 different services and clients to get a good experience?
Twitter needs to grow up, or it will die. And it will happen quickly - less than two years from the day a serious competitor gains steam.
That's amusing, but unacceptable given the large amount of squatting on Twitter. Anyone here have any luck getting a company name from Twitter when it was squatted?
1) Internet social media is a young, rapidly evolving ecosystem, heading towards better understanding of consumers, better solutions, and longer product lifetimes.
2) Internet social media is basically entertainment, where sites, platforms, and communication strategies rise and fall in popularity like yesterday's television shows and networks, but on a much, much shorter timeline.