And as we know a lot of it has been blown out of proportions thanks to the potent mix of random "twats" and overeager traditional media.
As a tool it has its uses. However, I strongly believe that 45 million people don't _need_ this as a tool and use it purely for enterntainment. To say that we rely on Twitter for communication is simply false.
Also the 45m figure probably means 45m people have created an account at some point, tried it, thought it was ridiculous, and stopped using it. Daily users is probably far lower.
I was banned for using the word "twat" (modded down mercilessly even after I posted the full definition because I wasn't sufficiently humble about it).
When email was first becoming popular, most people didn't know they wanted to transfer a document without using paper. And in fact when they GOT a document in an email, much of the time they wound up printing it out.
But even then your basic argument is flawed, because it assumes that the point of email is attachments. The original technology email replaced was not the fax machine but the letter. Likewise, Twitter is arguably partly a replacement for SMS.
Thanks for the insight on email. I stand corrected.
However I still think that you can't compare Twitter to email.
By now Twitter is widely accepted. And I still don't see how we would _rely_ on it for communication. Its a micro-blogging service, might as well call it "follow my random thoughts and I'll follow yours", which obviously works for a lot of people.
We should start treating it as a enterntainment tool and not as a fabric of modern society without which news would not propagate throughout this world. There is waaaay too much hype around Twitter. The day I saw CNN read random twitter feed is the day I died a little inside.
I've been in enough situations where direct messaging on Twitter has the best and most efficient means of communication to dismiss Twitter not serving a need. Yes, the utility of Twitter is almost always overblown by the media, but we shouldn't underestimate how many use it as part of their regular communication workflow.
Twitter is basically a phone book. Imagine loosing your address book on your iPhone or blackberry; you'd be lost. Direct messaging might be a great way to communicate with people, but that is mostly because that direct message then gets emailed and texted to the individual.
Uh, there was no clear business need. Businesses were fine with using fax machines and the telephone. If there was a clear business need, XEROX would have capitalized on it since they had some of the first networked PCs.
E-mail predates even the internet, it was obviously clear before people had terminals let alone computers on their desks that we needed means of electronic communication.
From Wikipedia:
"E-mail predates the inception of the Internet, and was in fact a crucial tool in creating the Internet.
MIT first demonstrated the Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS) in 1961.[17] It allowed multiple users to log into the IBM 7094[18] from remote dial-up terminals, and to store files online on disk. This new ability encouraged users to share information in new ways. E-mail started in 1965 as a way for multiple users of a time-sharing mainframe computer to communicate. Although the exact history is murky, among the first systems to have such a facility were SDC's Q32 and MIT's CTSS."
Facebook chat showing connection errors and other peoples' photos are appearing in my mobile album. Of course, it could just be load from all the displaced twitter users.
Two people have called me in the last few minutes to ask if I'm having internet problems - on in Nashville on AT&T and the other in Memphis - not sure what carrier.
My Comcast connection just went down for about five minutes while I was typing that... but my open ssh connections, one to a server in Nashville, one to one in Fremont at Hurricane Electric, and one to Rackspace in Dallas - still worked.
Can anyone comment on whether the issues with Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal are related? Nobody seems to be saying it, but it doesn't seem to be a coincidence?
I know Twitter has had downtime before but this is of long duration, early in the morning and coinciding with issues with the other sites.
Is this an anti-socialnetworking hacker attack???
They're probably not. Twitter is a DDoS according to its status page; whereas http://status.livejournal.org/ says that their problems were "due to some database problems."
I am not sure if it's related, but I had connection errors with Facebook chat last night around 11pm EST, it was my first time using this feature, so I wrote it off as buggy, and moved the conversation to another chat platform.
Check out alexa, compete, etc. identi.ca would have to be horribly designed in order to run into scalability issues at the current traffic level. Twitter's traffic is two to three orders of magnitude greater.
Sorry that was spam (although joke spam). I've been clicking around on identi.ca for 10 minutes ... the navigation is really clunky ... I'd think delicious could handle the traffic and keep users if twitter went down (it's almost the same thing but with more features).
That is indeed the solution. If a Twitter type service is to become a real communications platform it must be federated (decentralized) and immune to DOS attacks, government intervention, etc.
you know, this would be a pretty sneaky way to measure the reach of twitter -- go down for an hour or so in the morning and take a look at the media response metrics.
fair, but i was referring to more mainstream sources.
i'm not trying to imply that this is what is happening, but i do think it could be an interesting metric to compare -- how much noise you get from downtime 6 months ago to the noise of today.
My twitter is down. I was going to ask all of you to add me to keep me updated, but I suppose that won't work. Add me later then http://twitter.com/colleenannhayes
Riiiight. Rely is a very strong word. How will we do business?! How will we talk to our friends and relatives?!
Let's face it, Twitter solved a problem that never existed.