Tag Archive for 'twitter'

Twitter Without Replies

Published
by
philcrissman
on June 24, 2008
in microbloggy
.

As is no doubt well covered, Twitter has been without the “replies” feature for some time tonight.

So, now what? I realized within a few minutes that the main reason I spend any time on Twitter is to check the replies tab. Yes, I push stuff out there, everyone does; but that’s only part of the point.

Twitter was conceived as a sort of “presence” service. I’m doing this. I’m watching that. I’m at home, work, I’m sleeping, I’m sick/tired/well/happy/bored/confused/apathetic. I don’t think that it’s difficult to argue, however, that Twitter became a lot more than that, and that the real attraction of Twitter is the conversation (or, at least, the pseudo-conversation).

I’d feel comfortable saying that the @ replies are what made Twitter avoid being merely a curiousity, and turned it to a killer app.
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WWDC Casualty: Summize

Published
by
philcrissman
on June 9, 2008
in Asides
.

While Twitter is weathering WWDC, Summize’s WWDC coverage is giving a “500 Server Error” page, as of this writing.

A prettier way to see WWDC updates from Twitter is Twistori/#wwdc, which seems to be running fine.

UPDATE: Perhaps I spoke too soon; Twitter has been having a few troubles; but, it’s back now, so… kudos to Twitter, again.

Replies Are Optional

Published
by
philcrissman
on June 9, 2008
in microbloggy
.

WWDC was evidently creating quite a load on Twitter… you might have noticed that the Replies tab was actually disabled for a while this morning (I was not quick enough to grab a screenshot; oh well).

Wait… replies? Yes. I guess they’re optional.

That said, it is working now, and twitter seems to be fine, so far.

New Twitter Limitations

Published
by
philcrissman
on June 9, 2008
in microbloggy
.

Jeffro reports there are new Twitter limitations on following and updating.

I’d echo yes, this seems like a good idea.

So far, my feeling is still that Twitter’s core user base will not abandon ship while they are fixing their architecture and in other ways resolving their issues. A bad sign for Twitter is that I’m increasingly seeing people use a different service as “their new Twitter” (see Leo Laporte’s first comment in this FriendFeed discussion). However, a stable, robust Twitter could still win these people back, I think.

Twitter Groups

Published
by
philcrissman
on June 5, 2008
in microbloggy
.

Mashable reports Twitter is working on groups.

I’d welcome this feature; I predict, however, that we’re going to hear a chorus asking why work on a new feature, given issues the service is already having?

Then again, I wonder if people spending time only in groups, in smaller subsets of followers/followees, might actually lessen the load on the server?

Discrepancies

Published
by
philcrissman
on June 5, 2008
in Asides
.

Discrepancies

Our Webserves: They Has Discrepancies.

Published
by
philcrissman
on June 5, 2008
in microbloggy
.

Our webserves. They has discrepancies.

I’m telling you, this blog writes itself.

Maybe Plurk And Twitter Have More In Common Than We Thought

Published
by
philcrissman
on June 5, 2008
in Asides
.

Oops

Hmm. It looks like Plurk is down, too.

I know it’s around here somewhere…

Published
by
philcrissman
on June 5, 2008
in microbloggy
.

Twitter lost a database.

Well, that would explain it. Though as of this writing, it looks like they may have found it again.

Kudos for the increased communication, though.

What About Jaiku?

Published
by
philcrissman
on June 5, 2008
in microbloggy
.

With the obvious exception of Gmail, Google’s forays into social networking do not seem to have been as well-received. There is orkut, of course. Orkut is huge in some parts of the globe, so maybe this is a bad example; or at least, it’s an example of being somewhat North-America-centric in my perspective. That said, North America is where I’m at, and here, Orkut is no big splash. While even the non-internet savvy in North America are familiar with dozens of news stories about MySpace and Facebook, I doubt Orkut has popped up on most folks’ radar.

Jaiku seems to be in about the same boat. I had never heard of it until Google bought it, though I realize that many other early adopters had heard of it. It has most or all of twitter’s features, and a few of FriendFeeds, in that it can import feeds from other sites, such as Twitter.
Continue reading ‘What About Jaiku?’