«  |  »

Twitter redesigns, but is the microblogging war over?

By | September 18, 2008

In the latest post over on the Twitter blog entitled "Changes Afoot", EV announced a number of changes to their microblogging/short messaging service, including some speedy Ajax refresh and some rearrangement of the tabs. While there may be some visual adjustment at first, I'm more likely to complain about a change in Twhirl than I am to the Twitter interface.

But while users debate the changes, the real question is if there is a better alternative to Twitter. In a blog post today, Jim Tobin slapped the FAIL tag on the many recent Twitter copycats such Rejaw and Fidj.it.  He also wonders if any of the more entrenched microblogging formats such as Plurk and Jaiku missed their chance during the great Twitter blackouts of Spring 2008.

With it's increased uptime and more reliable service,  has Twitter already won the microblogging war?

While many of the early, early adopters like myself sign up to the latest copycat and blab about why we love/hate it, we often do so via Twitter.  Why? Because that's where all of our friends are. Heck, even the Cleveland Public Library is there. More than features and third-party software, knowing our buddies are all hanging out there is what keeps us coming back.  Barring another series of massive downtime,  any future Twitter competitor is going to have a hard time getting these types of institutions to jump on board.

At what point do we slap the Fail Whale on Jaiku and Plurk? I'm guessing sooner rather than later.

Wondering what people are saying about the Twitter redesign? Go here and read all the responses.

About the Author:

4 Comments »

Comments

4 Comments so far

  1. Brian Chappell - September 18, 2008 at 11:33 pm

    RE: has Twitter already won the microblogging war? I think they have Dominic. No one wants to lose there following.

  2. Jim Tobin at Ignite Social Media - September 19, 2008 at 8:58 am

    Yeah, it's gotten to the point that I'm just hoping Twitter grabs the good ideas from these others and integrates them...

    Thanks for the link. ~Jim

  3. Andy Finkle - September 19, 2008 at 8:59 am

    You nailed it DJ...it's all about where your friends are. I agree, Twitter owns this space however - The real money will be made in the enterprise, and enterprise/consumer-bridge space. This is where Twitter still has an opportunity. There are already a dozen Twitter clones for enterprise users, and I expect we will see at least 30 more over the next few months. On my blog, I posted at least 12 different ways Twitter can monetize...will be interesting to see where they take this. After all, Twitter is still a 1.0 product.

    http://www.twitter.com/A_F

  4. Dominic J. Litten - September 19, 2008 at 3:55 pm

    Thanks for the comments. I debated on whether or not to discuss Yammer and the enterprise components but thought better of it.

    Have a great weekend everyone.

4 Responses to “Twitter redesigns, but is the microblogging war over?”


* required