Since I last wrote about Twitter and usage classifications, it was showcased at SXSW and that’s caused an explosion in
a) users
b) usage
c) media coverage
d) site problems and
e) inevitable navel-gazing.
To add to the latter, I’ve also observed the emergence of a bunch of new services which feed the Twitter beast - in much the same way that the last 18 months or so have seen a whole host of services and applications which feed the MySpace beast.
Two thoughts about this:
1. It’s an interesting business model: being reliant on the success of someone else’s business. I’ve heard people say that it hasn’t stopped all sorts of service piggybacking in traditional industries, but I’m struggling to think of an example at the moment - anyone? Nevertheless, it’s interesting to see it in this context.
2. A lot of these derivative services seem to try to extend not just the functionality of the service, but the very propositionof it.
So, for example, using TwitThis, you can encourage people to tweet (I hate myself for using this terminology, by the way) about your latest blog posting, in the same way you might exhort them to digg it, or save the permalink to del.icio.us or something.
And URLs posted within Twitter can be collated and measured to give an idea of TwitterBuzz.
Being able to embed your Twitter stream - or your friends’ - into a MySpace page or blog helps Twitter to take on the guise of a sidebarblog or Tumblr.
The recent tweaks to the API mean that there’s already rumblings about how Twitter could be used as a way to request and receive specific information such as weather or news data, jut like you can currently do via SMS. The same author also details his theory that “Twitter usernames have become effective keywords for services” and that “within weeks or months we will see an after-market for the trading of Twitter usernames”. Data retrieval. Communication services.
Meanwhile, Twitterholic shows the top 100 twits based on activity (and number of followers) - it’s just like that list of 100 top blogs from 2002 (was it Torrez.org?) only based on one service!
You can extend the functionality of Twitter by using Mail2Twitter to, er, send tweets (shudder) to Twitter via mail. Remember when blogging via email was the big thing? Plus you can use twitterbot to broadcast RSS feeds - something both the BBC and The Guardian news services have been experimenting with recently - and see where people are and search the public streams, too. Cultural note: there have been more mentions of cheese than tuna.*
But here’s the point: the Twitter value proposition is thousands of people answering one simple question: “what are you doing right now?” All these tangential services and derivative extensions are in danger of warping that proposition entirely, turning Twitter into a means to an end, rather than an end in itself. “I use Twitter (or SMS, or the browser, or Ceefax) to check the weather” is very different to “I’m wondering what the weather is going to be like tomorrow”….
* Tangent: 5 years ago blogging was famously lampooned in the phrase “today I had a cheese sandwich“. These days you’re more likely to get a Twitter update from a contact saying “I’m having a cheese sandwich RIGHT NOW”.
On your point one, any company that spawns cottage industries around it is pretty successful.
If you are looking for examples in traditional industries, take car manufactures. Many of the big plants have the seat manufactures and loads of other supplies situated very near the factory to supply parts directly to the factory. Or is that not the kind of thing you are looking for?
You know this is just shouting out for a XXX version of it. You know someone will do it.
And it will be called Titter.
[… goes to try register it … it’s registered … although expires in 4 months … although the .us is free … atually “Titter Us” is a great domain for a kinky Twitter … damn won’t let me buy it because I’m not in the US. Blast.]
@Adrian: I was thinking more about smaller services that set up to support or enhance the activity of a particular brand or service.
An example would be a company that made ipod covers - no other digital music players, just them, so if no-one buys an ipod then, well, they’re screwed.
There must be other examples, though, and I’m not sure if there are many IRL which hinge on an early technology. AFAIK, all the ipod cover manufacturers hopped on board when the device went completely mainstream.
Stuck in traffic north of the Blackwall Tunnel yesterday, I saw a van advertising something like “portable building installation services” (not a direct quote, but close). They set up your Portakabin for you, basically.
What about people who you sent your CD’s too, and they ripped them all for you, and loaded them on your iPod.
Their were also services for upgrading your Sky box too a bigger hard drive.
I think their are plenty of cases of someone setting something to service a small niche, and then expanding out when they found they were popular and there was adjacencies they could move into easily.
One might see the early days of web development as this. People setting up small business to support companies getting online.
And it will be called Titter
Twatter, surely?
“All these tangential services and derivative extensions are in danger of warping that proposition entirely, turning Twitter into a means to an end, rather than an end in itself.”
That’s not a point, it’s a business model.
Part of me wonders if Evan (one of blokes behind Twitter and that blogging thing…) is a genius or just startlingly lucky. To startup two web-based apps, both of which have had such a huge impact, is very smart.
There is limited life in “what am I doing, right now”. Other than the usual core adopters, the ones who stick with something through thick and thin (e.g. those still on Blogger from the early days), I think it will drop off. So without these additional services adding to the scope of twitter I’d suggest it’s lifespan was limited. Certainly it’s growth span… (if that’s even a thing).
[…] Meg recently pondered the explosive growth of Twitter: “… the Twitter value proposition is thousands of people answering one simple question: “what are you doing right now?” All these tangential services and derivative extensions are in danger of warping that proposition entirely, turning Twitter into a means to an end, rather than an end in itself.” […]
@Gordon: I see what you’re saying about there being a limited appeal to the original proposition, but I was meaning to point out that it’s interesting that people (whether via innovation of services or usage) are forcing that proposition open, turning it into something much broader than originally intended - so I’m not saying that it shouldn’t be broad, just that the change is being driven by the derivative suppliers and users, rather than creators of Twitter.
It’s the equivalent of someone making a spoon and then me coming along and saying “Hang on, that food-to-mouth-conveyance-device has potential” and inventing an attachment that bolts on the side of the handle and gives you news headlines whenever you move the shovel towards your face.
I’m interested to see whether core use remains as “I’m eating lunch” or migrates to the emerging use cases.
@James
Titter is for suburbia
Twatter is for the city
@James and Adrian
For those who are mobility impaired: Totter
for David Jason and Nicolas Lyndhurst: Trotter
ok, I’ll stop now
and for the photo version: twittr
Yeah Meg, I think I get that. But I still believe that Twitter has always had that sort of thing in mind, sure the people behind it might not know WHAT it will grow into but they recognised the potential for it to grow.. surely?
@Lawrence:
Twttr was Twitter’s original name:
http://www.twttr.com
ASDFing…
So with all this talk on Twitter’s business model (Gordon, Meg) I noticed something a bit different about Twitter. That people seemed to know the people they friended. This was more in keeping with what Twitter represented than the MySpace/YouTube……