Twitter is just a Fad

we will be talking about something else next year

[ogletree]

I really don't see twitter going anywhere. I think it has peaked. The marketing people are really pushing it but I just don't see it lasting very long. It is a one trick pony. Nobody can beat the popularity of Facebook. People will realize that twitter is just Facebook with no way to find old friends. Twitter is a novelty. Twitter does have its place in niches. It rocks for the SEM world.

[bill]

It's a one trick pony that does its trick quite well. I'll bet it's still here one year on. We may be talking about it being combined with some other service.

[sem4u]

I think Twitter will be around for a while longer yet. There is talk of a search engine and it may well be intergrated into another service.

Will Facebook be around in five years time? We will see. Something better may have come along by then.

[ogletree]

As of right now Facebook is the number one search on Google Trends. I have been trying and the only thing I can find the only terms searched more than facebook are the words "the" and "of" and Facebook is not far below those.

Twitter just does not offer anything to grab traction. I'm even starting to lose interest in Twitter. Everybody seems to think it is a broadcast service. It will all depend on how well Twitter fights spam. That is what will make or break twitter.

[simonuk]

I think it will be around for some time yet. Twitter has many uses and some are better than others.

I have an active account and all I do is follow other designers and developers. What I get is a ton of interesting articles every day to further feed my insatiable thirst for web building knowledge. I find Twitter a great way to locate new and interesting topics.

[Swanny007]

I agree, it is a fad. I could live without it. Facebook, however is still a neat tool at finding old friends and keeping in touch :-)

[ogletree]

Sounds like twitter is just a better Stumbleupon

[gpilling]

and somehow Facebook is NOT a fad?

[ogletree]

Facebook has transcended fad. When normal people use it on a daily basis and when you can find no other word that can beat it in Google Trends other than "of' or "the" then it is officially not a fad. I think myspace will stay around because of its connection to music and younger people. Facebook is used by adults and lot of them.

[documaker]

I don't understand the popularity of any of these social sites other than fantastic PR. I mean really... The majority of them are just refurbished FFA farms!

[tim222]

Twitter has an insteresting business model:

How do you make money from Twitter?

Twitter has many appealing opportunities for generating revenue but we are holding off on implementation for now because we don't want to distract ourselves from the more important work at hand which is to create a compelling service and great user experience for millions of people around the world. While our business model is in a research phase, we spend more money than we make.

(from [twitter.com...]

In other words - they want to build a huge network and then get bought out by Google for more than they're worth. It's the new internet business model, ala YouTube.

[MrSpeed]

I agree with ogletree. I really don't see many "real" people using twitter unless their narcissistic. I know a crap load of people using facebook to stay conected.

Twitter does seem to be gaining traction with the business world though.

[maximillianos]

For me, a newsletter works just fine. Feedburner combined with my custom RSS feed does the same trick of keeping me in touch with my users... and the best part, my users don't need to sign-up for yet another social service just to receive my messages/newsletters.

What is the difference between a newsletter and Tweeter anyway? My newsletter goes out to my "followers" via email whenever I post an update. My followers can receive my newsletter on their iPhones, Blackberry's, or the web, essentially anywhere they get email... which is the same I assume for Tweeter? I can send out a newsletter by simply making a post on my site... all my followers receive it via email. I can make a post via my computer, my iPhone, my Blackberry, where ever I am... I assume this is the same for Tweeter?

Plus my newsletter can be greater than 140 characters... ;-)

The only difference I can see is that folks can Tweet multiple times a day, where a newsletter might be considered spammy if sent out multiple times a day.

I guess lump me into the I just don't get it crowd... Until I see the light, my old school newsletter works just fine for me...

[ogletree]

Anybody who likes to contradict me with the example that Ashton Kutcher uses Twitter just does not understand the definition of Irony.

[gpilling]

I am more interested in following twitter than I am in what my former high school mates are doing on facebook. Not that I really do either one that often....