All of the above.
With Twitter, I think Ev may become the first person to get bought twice by Google. The way I see it, Twitter is the reason Ev bought back Odeo, Inc.
The Recipe (variations based on taste): Buy Odeo, Inc. back for $2 million; rebrand; take your least-understood product and take it to market hard; aggregate the curious and their friends from across web-based social networks; get them co-communicating on a realtime platform via the web, IM, and cell phone/SMS; acquire a couple of companies or organically build in powerful local/regional/commerce capabilities; and let users make rev off of ads too 'cause that makes for more users; create the power of completely engaged smart mobs; improve offering; get amazing press; add a pinch of cumin and get acquired by Google.
maybe twitter will let you group friends soon.
maybe I'll create an Atlanta twitter group.
maybe I'll twitter: "At Big Lots where the Bratz Sushi Bar is on sale for $15--there are three parking places up close."
maybe it's tags, not groups.
maybe one tag is atlanta, another is geeks, another is work--i self-organize my twitter network.
maybe i get paid to twitter.
maybe a sponsor wants me to twitter a road trip.
maybe I make a new friend.
maybe jenna twitters while she's out.
maybe the web isn't the only place we publish.
I'm having fun.
Dave doesn't see the point in the praise.
(Of course, Dave has yet to be acquired by Google, although December's right around the corner and doesn't that mean his blog-retirement party ought to be in the works?)
Do I have any idea if there is even one spermatozoa of merit in the speculation on Ev getting double-acquired? Hell, no. I don't have a clue. Maybe Ev grows twitter and odeo and decides to stay put as Obvious. Maybe twitter gets incorporated into an even bigger idea. Or maybe it becomes profitable within a six months. Then maybe Google offers $25 million--or $100 million. Then maybe Ev says yes, ok.
And that's when Ev makes double history and Dave gets it.
Tags: twitter, web2.0, ev williams, blogging, IM, social networks, advertising, business, marketing, tech, PR, Internet, Google, Blogger, Obvious = Powered by Qumana
