4 ms·

I've never seen a "leading telecom" messaging system send my single message simultaneously to a thousand people via email, sms, IM, and a web interface within a

by dcurtis 18y ago

I've never seen a "leading telecom" messaging system send my single message simultaneously to a thousand people via email, sms, IM, and a web interface within a minute. SMS by itself is slow, unreliable, expensive, and only goes point-to-point.

tx 18y ago
SMS is more capable, by far more reliable and complex system than Twitter. (guess how do I know?) Most Americans are unaware of it because it has never been popular here due to pricing differences but it's changing. SMS are multi-casted more often than you think and the load I've seen were several times that of Twitter. I am not calling anyone stupid or incapable, I suspect it's just a side effect of "release early, release often" mantra. And don't exaggerate for the sake of exaggeration: how many Twitter users have "thousands" of followers?
- maximilian 18y ago
  I actually think quite a few people have "thousands" of followers. I don't have anything to back this up, but I think you'd be surprised as to how many people follow the more popular people on twitter.
axod 18y ago
In the UK, SMS is pretty well used, very cheap, and does not only go point to point. You can specify a list of destinations in each message. Phone carriers like O2 routinely send SMS out to their entire customer base announcing new offers/deals (Unless you text stop). Football announcements - if you opt in, as soon as a goal is scored, they send SMS messages out to thousands of interested fans instantaneously. I used to run a ringtone website and dealt with these sorts of things. Perhaps SMS is slow and unreliable in the US, but not in europe. Each message has with it a message longetivity which says how long it should stick around in the system trying to deliver itself. Also you have successful send notifications for that rare instance a message could not be delivered.

by dcurtis 18y ago

tx 18y ago

SMS is more capable, by far more reliable and complex system than Twitter. (guess how do I know?) Most Americans are unaware of it because it has never been popular here due to pricing differences but it's changing. SMS are multi-casted more often than you think and the load I've seen were several times that of Twitter. I am not calling anyone stupid or incapable, I suspect it's just a side effect of "release early, release often" mantra. And don't exaggerate for the sake of exaggeration: how many Twitter users have "thousands" of followers?

maximilian 18y ago
I actually think quite a few people have "thousands" of followers. I don't have anything to back this up, but I think you'd be surprised as to how many people follow the more popular people on twitter.

axod 18y ago

In the UK, SMS is pretty well used, very cheap, and does not only go point to point. You can specify a list of destinations in each message. Phone carriers like O2 routinely send SMS out to their entire customer base announcing new offers/deals (Unless you text stop). Football announcements - if you opt in, as soon as a goal is scored, they send SMS messages out to thousands of interested fans instantaneously. I used to run a ringtone website and dealt with these sorts of things. Perhaps SMS is slow and unreliable in the US, but not in europe. Each message has with it a message longetivity which says how long it should stick around in the system trying to deliver itself. Also you have successful send notifications for that rare instance a message could not be delivered.