The Twitter Post - Site News - Twitter
Posted on: 2009-04-17 13:48:12

I have been saying for some time now that I would write a post talking about Twitter. It has been kind of difficult narrowing down why people use it, because people use it for varrying reasons and it is hard to sum all those up or figure out why it would be usable for an individual. I have also been debating on just how I should break down how the services works and its strengths and flaws.

At its core, twitter is a messaging service that was made with cell phones in mind. I post a message and everyone who is following me on twitter get it. And I get messages from everyone I am following. I can post about whatever the hell I want, and so can they. This is all twitter is. You say what you feel like saying, and people who like you or what you are saying can follow you. And you follow people you find interesting.

This model probably sounds familiar. I post to my blog and you people read them (for some reason), and I read web pages that I like. Small exceptions, of course, no images or videos, all posts are limited to 140 characters, and if you are using twitter on your phone, you get updates in real time.

Personally, I use twitter to post things I find amusing at the moment (ie, probably wouldn't make it to the blog), comment to my followers since I have real life friends with similar interests following me, or as a call out asking for help/advice/input about something. I follow people I find interesting or who I know. I can keep up with them and share in what they have to say. But that is me. I know of at least two guilds in World of Warcraft who coordinate using twitter: 'need an off tank for Maly, anyone available?', 'guys, can't make it tonight. wife sick.' From saegiru: "I personally just enjoy posting things I find interesting and/or funny, regardless of their inanity, and vice versa."

I wanted the twitter posts on the page because most of what I post to twitter never make it to the page, and I like to think that some of them are worth reading...or at least noting. I also have a tendency to go several days to a couple of weeks without making a post on the page, the Recent Twitter area lets you know I am still alive.

Twitter
Posted: 2009-04-17 18:28:50, by Mossyfoot

How long will it be before Verizon, AT&T, and the like develop their own "twitter"? Or "worse yet" buy out twitter...

Re: Twitter
Posted: 2009-04-18 01:57:13, by talam

I doubt either, really. But I could see them advertising it more. As it is, they had no development cost, no maintainance cost, and no liability about the content. The only cost they incur is free text messages from twitter to the users. But a little know fact about text messages, as long as they are limited in size, they don't really cost anything. And as long as people are texting, they can still charge us.

More Twitter
Posted: 2009-04-21 19:02:08, by Mossyfoot

One gripe I have about Twitter is the size limit... What is stopping them from increasing the size *scratches head*?

It has to do with text vs mms.
Posted: 2009-04-21 19:20:24, by talam

Everytime your phone polls the cell tower (or vice versa) there is a control channel opened that is reserved for configuration, but really isn't used. Even if the no configuration is sent, data is still sent (think of it like padding a file to maintain a certain size). Text messages were born from this little used bit of empty data.

The size, however, is still important. All text messages used to be bound to this size limit. And standard text messages still are, but with the advent of MMS messages, we don't really feel it (unless you don't have a texting package on your phone, then you feel it when you get the bill.)

But companies that are sending tons of text messages out can limit their costs by staying under the limit.

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