When things happen in “real time” they are a lot more interesting. Nobody wants to “read about it tomorrow” when they can “read it now”. It did not take long for Jack Dorsey’s Twitter to become the poster child for the truly disruptive Social Web. People Noticed. Twitter become ubitiquous seemingly overnight.
So why the “Twitter – FAIL” post? Simple. The Twitter service still feels like a “half-baked prototype”. It is often “down”, provides highly variable response times to customers, has a silly “API Limit”restriction to prevent the “lights from dimming” in their data centers,and the general perception is that none of this is changing soon. Inthis new game of Search 2.0 and the “real time” web, the pace of changeis exponential, not linear – and Dorsey’s crew appear to be stuck inslow motion.
If Twitter Doesn't Grow Up Quick – Google Will End It.
And as in the photo above, Twitter may find itself “rewinding thetape” some time from now and identifying that critical inflection wherethey “dropped the last ball”. That point where their competitionstopped firing warning shots, but locked in with that silver bullet,and where everything came crashing down.
Facebook and Google are both investing heavily in “catching up”. Facebook’s enhancement a few weeks back, to provide their communitywith an amazingly similar “Twitter Stream Of Consciousness” feel wassignificant. Google’s recent launch of iGoogle Social Gadgets was both brilliant – and may well turn out to be that “silver bullet” that will one-day haunt Dorsey and his team.
An interesting observation I have made is that most of the chatterout there are from people that likely would disagree with me, and whoare instead dismissing Google, pointing to how limited their Timeline Gadgetis compared to what Twitter offers. ”Oh, if only they had let us typewhatever we wanted, THEN it might have been a Twitter alternative -stupid Google!”
No, not stupid Google. ”Stupid” People.
Do you really think that Google didn’t “think of that”? HELLO? They are a pretty smart bunch over there I THINK.
Google is the first software company ever that publically launches all their products in beta– and many of them seem to stay in beta indefinitely. Having saidthat, their “beta” software often performs better, and always scalesbetter than the rest of the online software ecosystem!
Google is always striving to improve. Google understands Continuous Improvement.
Google is smart. And Google “knows” what happened with Microsoft and the DOJ. They will tread carefully.
Above all, Google knows how to Make IT Work.They focus on the back-end first, and the front-end last. Compare thatwith what Microsoft’s approach was over the last 20 years.
Twitter’s last change of note was to their “front-end” but to their home page. Unimpressive.
Is Twitter Destined To Simply Be Remembered?
Dorsey, I know your team is super smarttoo. I hope you are playing the “google game” with the rest of yourinfrastucture and on the cusp of revealing a better, faster, scalable“new and improved” version of Twitter. I like rooting for the underdog,and I don’t want to see epitaphs like this mark the final chapter inthe Twitter book of history. Change people, CHANGE!
And please, get rid of that silly “Oops, Out Of API Requests” issue. You’re killing us…..
-Pedro
