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I’ve just added twitter updates to my sidebar. By doing that, any of my readers can see what I’m doing right now (assuming I’ve told twitter).
I’ve played with twitter for a while now and I am still trying to gather my thoughts on the product.
The Service
For those who don’t know, twitter is a web application that allows registered users to post what they are doing “right now.” They make updates pretty simple. You can update using their web site, text message 40404, and email.
You can follow other users as well. So, if I want to know what my friend Jeff Noble or Capillya is doing, I “follow” him. Once I follow someone, it text messages me an update of “what they are doing.”
The Usage
Twitter makes it easy to update what you are doing… allowing me text message what I am doing it great. In addition, there are some really nice apps that make updating really simple. For instance, Jott.com allows me to call a toll-free number and make twitter updates via voice calls.
The Review
A friend of mine (after discussing twitter), told me that it isn’t a viable service. He called it a “feature” not a product. His thought behind the statement is that this is something Facebook and most other social networking sites have built into their product.
I guess I sort of agree. My only argument is not the service itself. The twitter service is similar to Facebook status update. Facebook does allow you to update status and you can even receive mobile updates when someone updates their status (this is something I’ve had to literally show someone).
The argument is the way the service is used. Facebook users update their status as a statement of feeling while twitter users utilize updates as statements on what they are doing….
Typical Facebook updates look like “RJ Martino is bored” or “RJ Martino is lucky to have such a great friend”
Typical Twitter updates look like “RJ Martino is writing a review on twitter.com” or “RJ Martino is going to a court appearance”
This is hard to explain… but to sum it up, facebook updates tell followers how they are feeling… twitter updates tell you what people are actually doing, not what they’re feeling.
So, as a technical review, I don’t think twitter is much than Facebook. But after using it for some time, there is no doubt that they are used in two different ways.
It seems almost certain that twitter is a viable product by the number of users but I’ve stopped making predictions on product viability.
