With almost a 100 million users and going strong, twitter has been a phenomenon in the last couple of years. Although, unlike Facebook and other social networking websites, twitter cannot boast of the same penetration (read: regular users), it has won a large following of twitterati who tweet more than they speak.
As a regular user of twitter, I have been increasingly irritated by the Blue Whale (too many tweets error) on screen two out of ten times I visit twitter. It reminds me of the "No Donut for you" that frustrated me out of Orkut. Has it ever happened on Facebook? No! That's lesson number 1 for twitter - if you're down for a minute, you'll be down and out in no time. For a website which banks on the randomness and pace of human thought, being available when the thought strikes is all the more important.
The other problem with Orkut was sharing. Sharing on Orkut was extremely complicated and difficult - at least then, no idea about how it is now. Twitter suffers with the same problem. Sharing pictures on twitter is not intuitive like it is on Facebook. Until only recently, sharing links was also an major issue owing to the 140 character limit. Fortunately, with the web link shortening tool, this has now been taken care of. That's lesson no 2 - make sharing easier.
In the cyber world, simplicity is the only way. With the advent of tumblr and other similar websites, for twitter, simplifying its core competency - thought sharing - is but a fight for survival.
As a regular user of twitter, I have been increasingly irritated by the Blue Whale (too many tweets error) on screen two out of ten times I visit twitter. It reminds me of the "No Donut for you" that frustrated me out of Orkut. Has it ever happened on Facebook? No! That's lesson number 1 for twitter - if you're down for a minute, you'll be down and out in no time. For a website which banks on the randomness and pace of human thought, being available when the thought strikes is all the more important.
The other problem with Orkut was sharing. Sharing on Orkut was extremely complicated and difficult - at least then, no idea about how it is now. Twitter suffers with the same problem. Sharing pictures on twitter is not intuitive like it is on Facebook. Until only recently, sharing links was also an major issue owing to the 140 character limit. Fortunately, with the web link shortening tool, this has now been taken care of. That's lesson no 2 - make sharing easier.
In the cyber world, simplicity is the only way. With the advent of tumblr and other similar websites, for twitter, simplifying its core competency - thought sharing - is but a fight for survival.
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