May 03, 2007

Blame the Twitterer, Not the Twitter?

"Like Rivers Cuomo on serotonin reuptake inhibitors."

"Indeed, a whole lot of early adopters hate Twitter with Ted Kaczynski intensity. Seriously, there are netizens out there that hate Twitter worse than the third season of Lost. Twitter’s attraction is easy to assess for those interested in the high of new technology and the camaraderie of nonstop contact. It’s the next logical step after the design inanity that is MySpace. But what’s with the animosity? I’m all for hating things, but a lot of these bloggers are downright nasty."

heh.

Look, you know I've had my on-again-off-again with Twitter. I respect Ev--he's one of the reasons I'm here blogging. But when it comes to how Twitter has evolved--or has failed to--I'm left stumped.

I checked in recently and was astounded to see that nothing had changed there. Pretty much the same vapid chatter that made us sign up for the Do Not Call List on our home phones.

It wasn't until I realized that I was PAYING to get twitters as Instant Messages on Cingular -- shelling $80 out of my pocket to find out that my favorite Silicon People were once again having dinner -- that Twitter jumped the shark for me. Maybe that's not surprising.

But what does surprise me is the lack of innovation among the users on Twitter. By now, any other open space -- even given character limitations -- would have birthed something new -- TwitterPoetry. Limerick Jam. Twit for Charity. Adopt-a-Twit. Something!

What I see? The same folks eating and drinking and meeting. It is a complete lack of innovation at the user level that can only be fully understood upon further examination of the service's power users, who continue to use Twitter to do the same thing they have used it to do from the start: Annoy other people.

Among the many things twitter is NOT, please count blogging. Text messaging charges will apply.

...

one more for the road: I still think Ev has a good chance of being the first start-up maker to be double-bought by google.