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Twitter Dead in 07?

web1979.wordpress.com — This guy gives 3 reasons why "Twitter will flame-out before the end of 2007, in one of the most awe-inspiring lessons in irrational exuberance we ’ve seen since the turn of the millennium." What do you think?

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  • fatadamblog, on 10/12/2007, -6/+50I already think twitter is a waste of time.

    And from words of Leo Laporte "Twitter is for very lonely people"
    • rofflcopterr, on 10/12/2007, -1/+23and because facebook has it built in?
    • rodrigo74, on 10/12/2007, -2/+14I guess Leo considers himself like so, since he always mentions he's a big twitter user.

      I do agree with the article though, I think twitter is a fad.
    • unknamed, on 10/12/2007, -1/+30Seriously, who has so much spare time that they can sit around and read what their "friends" are doing at the moment... suddenly it occurs to me why it will ultimately fail: circular reference.

      Everybody will be so busy reading what everyone else is doing that they won't have time to do anything but read what everyone else is doing and then the only thing anyone will be doing is writing about how they are reading about what everyone else is doing and then people will be reading about how other people are reading about other people and other people and other people and ....other....peop.... *EXPLODES
    • TheReport, on 10/12/2007, -1/+37Im on Digg.com right now reading this article on how Twitter will die this year
    • texpundit, on 10/12/2007, -4/+14I think Twitter is dangerous...mainly because its users are willingly embracing the Big Brother 24/7 surveillance lifestyle. I don't want everyone knowing what I'm doing "right now" just like I don't want CCTV cameras on every fracking street corner. It sets a dangerous precedent...especially if you actually care about something like...I dunno...privacy.
    • Agret, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6I dugg this article despite not having a very clear of what twitter is, last time it was on the front page I signed up and read the site and I still don't know what it does. I've set what i'm doing (set my status to setting my twitter status, this could loop!) and can't work out what to do next, does this site offer any functionality?!
    • sleepwalkers, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6@texpundit: How does voluntarily signing up for a service and choosing what you put out into the open classify as Big Brother-esque "surveillance"? Come on, man. Seriously. You don't have to do this, you don't have to pay attention to it, and in no way is something like this (that more than likely WILL flame out before the end of '07) setting a "precident".

      Also, for people who are saying it's a "waste of time", there are little applets on both OS X and Windows that will pop up for 30 seconds (or so) when one of your friends updates, let's you read it, then disappear, and will also let you update right from these applets... Last time I checked, reading and/or writing a sentence or two isn't really considered "wasting time".
    • Terry2, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4Haven't you ever been in IM or SMS contact with someone all day and send a line or two of your thoughts every so often? Twitter is like that - it seems so natural to me and it has an RSS feed - its easy to add to a Google homepage or reader. I do not think it is a fad that will die - its easier than IMing a group and easier than keeping a full fledged blog. It is not so much for lonely people as people who sit at a computer much of the day. It will be here a long, long time.
    • hackmyballs, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2Smells like viral marketing gone wrong. ***** twitter!
    • Yorn, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9It's really sad everyone in the 15-25 year old generation is perfectly fine with their privacy gone. I got news for you, you're more likely to be convicted of a crime because you post evidence of underage drinking online than you are becoming famous for it. I know everyone in your generation is so absolutely obessed with "becoming famous" that they actually answer "famous" when asked what they want to be when they grow up, but you needn't act like you are a celebrity now. Trust me, the only people that care about what you're doing at any given point in time are not your friends, it's your parents and authorities.
    • Kitsune818, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Well, you are talking about a group of people where a person can be famous just for being a famously drunk whore. No talent required, just money, low education, and an eating disorder or two.
    • BrandonSh, on 04/06/2008, -0/+1A few things....

      Leo is always skeptical about things when they first come out... He frequently uses it atm.
      You can make your updates private.. so don't give me any "OMG NO PRIVACYS" crap.
      You can make Twitter update your Facebook status to your Twitters.. Meaning you can update it threw instant messengers with you can take on the road with you.
      The cool thing you Twitter is.. you can use it any way you want.. You don't have to let people know when you're taking a dump or when you're making yourself a sandwhich... some people do you don't have to.
      • BrandonSh, on 04/06/2008, -0/+1Wow is this article old. Twitter is still around and bigger than ever.. FYI
  • daRoach, on 10/12/2007, -7/+85What's twitter?
    • over90, on 10/12/2007, -4/+27I never heard of twitter either.
    • rm999, on 10/12/2007, -9/+37Seriously - I read the article for a while, and then closed it and marked this article as lame.

      Journalism 101: The reader should understand what the article is about within the first 2 sentences. He should understand the topic at a basic level within the first two paragraphs.

    • szembek, on 10/12/2007, -4/+13No, seriously... what the ***** is twitter!?
    • sleepwalkers, on 10/12/2007, -16/+9No, seriously... ***** look it up!
    • grubwort, on 10/12/2007, -4/+16I looked it up.

      Now, what is it?
    • zongamin, on 10/12/2007, -16/+6Search for yourself you lazy ***** *****.
    • domokunt, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4twitter is dead
    • Culled, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4@rm999
      To a certain extent I agree but then again this wasn't a newspaper article it was some random guy's blog, presumably it was written for people who read his blog regularly and have already heard him bitch about Twitter. If he'd known that this was going to be on digg I'll agree that he definitely should have posted some sort of explanation.
  • dbug, on 10/12/2007, -19/+5What is twitter?
  • Abstract147, on 10/12/2007, -9/+9@dbug and daroach

    Taken from Wikipedia...

    "Twitter is a social networking service that allows members to inform each other about what they are doing and what they think. It allows users to send messages via phone or instant messaging. Two SMS gateway numbers are available - one for USA, and one UK number for international use. Users can receive updates from other selected users via web, IM, or SMS."
  • Baku, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8http://www.twitter.com

    Update it with IM, your phone or on the web... and it displays on your blog/website what you send to it.
  • chrisblackwell, on 10/12/2007, -8/+4I think it will catch on. Most people on MSN Messenger update their name to display what they are doing, Twitter allows them to do that too but archive it.
    • dbr_onix, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2No they don't, most people on MSN Messenger fill their name up with annoying song-lyrics and far too many emoticons, then do the same with the "Personal Message" field too..
      I really doubt Twittr will catch on, it really serves no purpose, if you want to know what someone is doing, ask them, if you want to talk to them, email/IM/acctual go and talk to them. The only vaugly decent use of Twittr I've seen is using it to shove RSS feeds to phones and such
    • armbar, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7People use MSN Messenger?
  • LordSkywalker, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3So are you telling me that now, instead of some moron talking on his cell phone about how he "...just got some coffee and I'm on my way to the elevator..." he will instead be texting this crap to Twitter?

    I guess that sounds good to me. This way he'll STFU.
  • morphie, on 10/12/2007, -5/+15Twitter will be dead in 2007, 2007 will be the year of the linux desktop, Zune is the iPod killer in 2007, iPhone is going to rumble the phone market in 2007.... blah blah blah

    It amazes me how many people out there have this glass ball in which they can see the future...
  • smellycat, on 10/12/2007, -1/+24Why is twitter even alive in the first place?
    • texpundit, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17Because it's Skynet in disguise.
    • szembek, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3Sounds stupid.
    • sleepwalkers, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10Twitter is one of those things you think is flamingly retarded until you actually start to use it. Once you do, it starts to grow on you. It's a fun little distraction that takes about a minute of your time every hour or so.
    • ohgr, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Because it's Bi-curious and confused
    • asuraci, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4texpundit: Oh, please. It's completely voluntary. You're not forced to type in every single thing you're doing.
  • p0ps, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4This is the tool which allows everyone to be famous to 15 people. Twitter is like group IM or a chatroom with filtering. Because of the control it gives you over who you read or who reads you and because it moves easily from webpage, to IM, to phone -- it is here to stay.
  • thetron, on 10/12/2007, -6/+3Seems like TWITTER has alot of digg friends. I have no idea either who twitter is
  • Anonymous3, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Like some dude said wherever on the net, its like the message for your IM saying you're online/offine, except that you can say you're at the hairdresser, buying fashionable clothes, getting your nails done, or some other thing that teenage girls get up to.
    To me, its like how some people say what they're currently up to on IRC with their away scripts, "/away I'm asleep" "/away at the shops" "/away going to the toilet for a while because I have the runs" etc. That's not to say that I actually use it.
  • lobbster, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5twitter is the worst out of all the "web 2.0" start ups. i hope there bussiness model is not riding on them getting bought up
    • betobeto, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3It is actually strike two for the guys behind it (they are the same people behind ill-fated Odeo.com), and one of them is a former Google employee. Leaves you thinking...
  • Shenaniganz08, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7give me facebook stalker tools or give me death !
  • Phlosten, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4Yeah, I don't know how Twitter was even interesting to start with. Its entertaining for all of about 5 seconds.
    Twitter is Internet speak for 'waste my time some more'.
  • manski2, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2two things happened that showed me twitter was dead on arrival. (Twitter is a service that allows you to basically get updates (micro updates) from your friends via SMS in real time to see where they are.) At SXSW, sitting in the dan rather keynote, one of the developers twitter'ed a message to his friend list that was actually addressed to two people (imagine getting this message: "@ Mark: is the server still up?" if you aren't mark, and don't know what the server is...) That was the first sign: spam. then my friend was laughing at a twitter message she got: "Dan rather just said american journalism needs a spine transplant. ha ha." and I said, "I know, we are sitting in the second row. I was actually listening when he said that, three minutes ago." If you do something and don't twitter about it, does it actually happen?
  • BJanis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5The web 2.0 "emperors new clothes." Let's do it, everyone's doing it and talking about it.
    uh....
    I don't WANT everyone to know what I'm doing. What if you're private? I'm looking for an app that reads the minds of all people I know, and when they want to contact me while I'm busy they receive a message not to.
  • raccettura, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I really don't understand what the hype is about. I can't see it succeeding.

    Here's how I personally see it:

    If it succeeded (fat chance) it's a stalker/child molesters dream come true. And would be sued out of existence. Think myspace X 1000.
    • grubwort, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10I am being given candy by Mr Johnson he is going to show me his puppy
      ...
      Mr Johnson's puppy has no fur or eyes and lives in his pants. I stroked it but it was sick on me.
  • laterallateral, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Altough I won't be surprised if Twitter actually does "flame out"
    I think it's pretty retarded to devote all this time writing an inflamed article about something you ultimately think is a waste of time.
    Calling out something as a vapid net2.0 hipster fad on your BLOG that seemingly foccusses on vapid hipster web trends is a little insulting to my intelligence. This article clearly is just shameless trashing.
    • armbar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4It's on a different level, but Thomas Paine's writings effectively had the same purpose: to help the common people learn that certain things were stupid and they should think for themselves.

      I have absolutely no problem with people pointing out the stupidity and inanity of many things in the world, Twitter included.
    • laterallateral, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I will agree with you that there is much validity to cautionary journalism in the degree that the topic the article raises caution about could have adverse health, moral or financial impact. This is cretainly not the case here. Most people will recognize immediately their having a use (or lack therof) for it. On the flipside, some people will need to try it out in order to find that out. I've signed up for a number of these things (Me.dium come to mind) and realized that I have absolutely nothing to gain from them and It's caused me no great hardship to simply stop using them. I believe your statement about free choice is best illustrated here: Develop an opinion based on your own preferences and experiences as opposed to of having it fed to you by some disgruntled blogger.
      Besides, can you think of any example in witch people unable to choose for themselves were miraculously able to do so, uppon recomendation?
      "I'd recomend you choose for yourself" "If you say so"
    • laterallateral, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Thanks for the head's up on Thomas Paine, by the way.
      Didn't know about him. Common Sense looks like an interesting read.
  • lik3n, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I can see why it would die since it goes along the lines of being, ya know, pointless and a waste of bandwidth.
  • insovietrussia, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Listening to Evan Williams (Twitter founder) on net@nite last week he comes across as a fairly decent guy, but he seems a bit washed up after moving on from Blogger. Opodeo wasn't exactly a great success - out of touch with the podcasting scene perhaps - and Twitter seems like more of a passing fad.

    The big problem with Twitter is that basically no one cares what the hell you are doing. Most people think that they're interesting enough that people will want to know, but the simple fact is unless you're remotely famous people couldn't care less that you're sipping a latte at Starbucks.
  • chozsun, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I signed up for a Twitter account about a month ago. When I was reading this digg and the article, I was thinking, "What in the ***** is Twitter?" That is how useless Twitter is to me. I signed up at the insistence of Scott Kurtz (of PvPOnline.com), looked around and thought, "meh".
  • byronm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Honestly, i never even heard of Twitter until now. So what is there to implode on?
  • neoporcupine, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6Ffft. What a piece of self indulgent non-analysis. This sounds to me like a grumpy old man who can't stand those young kids with their tom-foolery rap music, nipple rings and their always connected, always chatting "cellular phones". A blatant attempt at giving Twitter a tongue kiss of death. Just because web1979 can't see the value in it then it must surely die. Either it dies or it doesn't. Predicting the death is pointless nose thumbing, and even appears quite nasty.
    • laterallateral, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1We are in agreement. Why not quench my thirst for validation by digging my previous comment up? o0
  • sparkrainfir, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3thank you -- i've been trying to figure this twitter thing out for awhile. i don't know why a lot of the big podcasters are talking this thing up. it's the worst idea i've ever seen.
  • grayapple, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3If I have 5 people who I know in real life on my twitter buddy list (or what ever it may be called) and I need to contact them all though SMS (If they all have their phones set up with their account), I can text the twittter phone number which inturn will text all my friends (for free I might add).

    I don't think it's a 'fad' - it's a handy little tool that saves people a few quid.
    • darkspire, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Some of us don't need third party apps to do this. I can text "groups" of people from my phone and have multiple text messages sent out to all of my friends. This counts as one sms on my plan. Alternatively I can send an email to my friends various email to sms gateways (usually phonenumber@company.com) and send them all text messages for free. There are a half a dozen other ways I can text people in groups or at no cost, and if that's the only reason to use twitter, then it will be dead before the end of the year.
  • morningmatters, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I mistaked Twitter for Tweeter (the electronics store) at first, which would of been pretty cool because we can then get discounted electronics.
  • ninjapheret, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2It may or may not succeed. Either way, how can someone rationally say that a little leisure website is "one of the most awe-inspiring lessons in irrational exuberance we ’ve seen since the turn of the millennium." That's incredibly naive and ignorant.
  • TechTraction, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I thought the article was well written and very entertaining (inspired me to blog about it). I heard about Twitter a couple months ago. Checked out the site and quickly concluded: Twitter is IM status message without chat capabilities. No one beyond my immediate family and a few friends really care to know what I'm doing. Even those people don't want to know every detail of every waking moment. Good grief.
  • littletinyfish, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2This was a horribly written article with Nosterdomus-like predictions. The evidence he prevents for it's failure are that he believes it's going to fail.
  • sicclife, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This was done like so many years ago. Back when Bonzi buddy first came out I tried some spyware ridden app that does the same thing that twitter does. I think that password saving gator application also did this.
  • hedgeland, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Well Twitter could be an extreme waste of time, but there are some very funny twitter-ers posing as famous people or characters. The George W Bush one is particularly funny:

    http://twitter.com/thepresident

    Hilarious. I can just picture W twittering all day long (honestly, what else would he be doing?).
  • mindcrime, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Was it ever "alive" in the first place? And will anybody miss it when it "dies?" I think not...
  • anodos, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Wrong thread... Guess digg doesn't handle stories in multiple tabs.
    • darkspire, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Yeah, isn't that awesome when you post a reply, or block a user, and when the page refreshes it's in the wrong story, usually the last one you opened the comments of. Digg appears to have quiet a few session management flaws.
  • nixm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I could really see myself getting tired of twitter...
  • rowlodge, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1i already wast my time to waste on something else to waste time with.
  • mrfreeziexp, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1I personally like twitter...
  • michellemarion, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2i've been a 'registered user' for like four months and i have only posted maybe 10 times. i keep thinking i'm missing something because who the hell cares if i'm watching seinfeld? and if i'm 'twittering' i am not watching seinfeld. i feel comfort after reading the blog entry though, cause it seems i am not missing anything - it is what it is - what the hell is it?
  • uberwaffle, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I hadn't even heard of twitter until now. Does that make me cool or uncool?
  • flukierdonut, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2please someone explain to me what the hell twitter is......i just can't figure it out
    • mredamon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Flukier, here is a realtime feed of twittering. http://twittermap.com/twittervision.

      Personally I think this service has potential, if people think about what they say before they say it. Some twitters are putting thoughts or musings out there that are actually quite interesting.

      But this is basically shorthand blogging, and you have complete control over who can read your comments and whose comments you read. It won't die anytime soon.
  • flukierdonut, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I just love how I get dugg down for asking a question...classic digg community..thanks for the answer mredamon
  • rrhobbs, on 03/22/2008, -0/+03/21/08 I'm addicted
  • rorowe, on 03/22/2008, -0/+1Twitter.com = microblogging. The value in it comes not from the service itself, but the network of people you follow. I, for example, follow many educators, technology theorists, and musicians, as well as friends that exist both in the "real world" and various other "social networks". Predicting Twitter's death is as silly as predicting the death of MySpace, Facebook, or any of the hundreds of networking services out there. In my opinion, if you hate it, ignore it.
  • karenswim, on 03/22/2008, -0/+0It's nearing the end of Q1 2008 and Twitter is not dead. As with all web 2.0 applications the user determines how they employ the technology. You can get caught up in the Facebook hug me applications and other silliness or you can utilize it to make business connections. You can tweet what you're feeding your cat for dinner or share business resources. As beauty is in the eye of the beholder, it can be said that usefulness is the hands of the user.
  • charholly9, on 03/22/2008, -0/+1Another SXSW has passed and so has this persons knowledge on the subject become less relevant. I wish people would realise the significance of tools like Twitter, the political discussions alone are worth the price. Thanks to Anil Dash for tweeting this so I could digg a story over a year old, Social Networking FTW
  • TwitterTutor, on 03/25/2008, -0/+0writing this in March '08 and Twitter is alive and kickin'
  • SuperRoach, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1A lot of the earlier posts failed to see its usefulness as a versatile, powerful link from real life to online prescence. I doubt it'll "die", but it will be useful to those that jump in to it. The main point is, you don't follow people or get updates about people who post about having eggs this morning. You follow interesting topics. Its like how podcasting took off.
    • aemolina, on 04/11/2008, -0/+0Can you give me some example on topics? Where do you subscribe to Twitter broadcasts of topics of interest? Aren't tweets supposed to be really short text messages? How much info do you really get about a given topic? I just don't understand the allure.
  • techrunch, on 04/24/2008, -0/+1http://techwatch.reviewk.com/2008/04/do-you-twitte ...
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