Ok, this will be my last post on Twitter for the time being. My last two posts on the subject pointed out flaws with it, so I thought I’d follow up with something positive. A lot of people just don’t get Twitter, dismissing it as hype. I was firmly in that camp until I tried it, and now am a total Twit (Twitter addict). This morning as I stepped into the shower, I was wondering why Twitter has such a hold. Jeff Atwood calls it the combination of blogging and IM. But I had this nagging feeling that I’ve used...
Jeff Atwood tells me he’s thinking of leaving Twitter for Jaiku. Scoble wrote about how Leo Laporte already left. Strangely enough, I’m having a sense of deja vu. Twitter would do well to study the lessons learned in the history of Friendster vs MySpace. Building a Twitter clone is not rocket science. There is no huge barrier to entry. The only thing that keeps twitter on top of other services is their large user base. As danah boyd points out in this essay which compares Friendster vs MySpace, People use the social technologies that all their friends are using....
Here’s the code <img src="maintenance.gif" />
And the result
At least this seems to be my experience with Twitter lately.
Look, I can understand the need to save costs with outsourcing, but you get what you pay for. It’s no wonder that Twitter is down so often given they’re using cats for their server maintenance.
At least pay a little extra and hire these guys!
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