Comments on: Thoughts on Twitter

By: Gordon R. Vaughan

Gordon R. Vaughan — Tue, 08 May 2007 18:34:09 +0000

Hi, found this post from Twitter. I haven’t tried the mobile part, but I will say that Twitter’s pretty fast on my Mac, certainly a lot faster than Jaiku, its competitor.

I wrote last week on my blog All Things:

“Twitter is asynchronous instant messaging for adults.”

To me, asynchronous is a big advantage. I have a lot of things I’ve got to juggle, so unlike a teenager, I don’t have blocks of hours at a time where I can just talk on the phone or IM.

Email is also asynchronous, and I like it, too, except for the spam and the annoying tendency so many people have to send emails that are long, or several with only partial info, etc., etc.! It amazes me how few people really understand how they ought to use email.

Twitter is both asynchronous and efficient. There is nothing to open, I can look at a page of messages in just a half-minute or so. I’m up to about 20 pages of messages from my friends per day, but that’s still nothing compared to email, and much more useful.

Beyond that, I’d also say it’s a great platform for announcements (e.g. new blog posts or status updates), breaking news, sharing links of interest, and coordinating groups at events.

I’m curious what else folks will do with it!

By: francine hardaway

francine hardaway — Tue, 08 May 2007 14:04:32 +0000

Over the weekend I had a car accident and I twittered about it. I got a bunch of calls from people in the area offering to help. I see a real social use for Twitter in promoting community, which is huge in a world where people live in urban settings far from family, often alone. That’s a good enough use for me.

By: David Blanar

David Blanar — Tue, 08 May 2007 09:03:51 +0000

I won’t speak for anyone else, but I love twitter because it’s with me wherever I am. I’m always out and about, not necessarily at my computer, so having the mobile option is handy. I don’t have a super high-tech phone, text works just fine, so twitter is perfect.

Plus, twitter is efficient because it hits different people wherever they are at the time, be it on the train or at their PC, and they can respond without having internet access.

I don’t want more e-mail; IM is great, but it’s less effective as a broadcast tool; and sending out mass texts is expensive!

Twitter does it all cheap, easy and wherever I am.

By: vinu

vinu — Tue, 08 May 2007 06:22:51 +0000

well – its more like you telling others. Rather you finding out. I have just moved to a new city and my tidbits of info I am giving once or twice a day – can never beat blogging or IM or emails!

Personally I see more social info sharing for minimal effort and thought.