4 ms·
"these outages are much more serious. 45 million people worldwide now rely on Twitter as a communication platform" Riiiight. Rely is a very strong word. How wi
by nick-dap 17y ago
"these outages are much more serious. 45 million people worldwide now rely on Twitter as a communication platform"
Riiiight. Rely is a very strong word. How will we do business?! How will we talk to our friends and relatives?!
Let's face it, Twitter solved a problem that never existed.
- mixmax 17y agoThat's how new markets are born. Back in the day e-mail solved a problem that didn't exist too.
- nick-dap 17y agoThere was no way to transfer a document instantly and without using paper. Faxes were slow and used paper. There was a clear business need. So I don't think thats a fair comparison. Then again I don't remember those days from personal experiences, just making an assumption. From a different perspective. If it was serving a need people would be willing to pay for it.
- Elepsis 17y agoWhen email was first becoming popular, most people didn't know they wanted to transfer a document without using paper. And in fact when they GOT a document in an email, much of the time they wound up printing it out. But even then your basic argument is flawed, because it assumes that the point of email is attachments. The original technology email replaced was not the fax machine but the letter. Likewise, Twitter is arguably partly a replacement for SMS.
- nick-dap 17y agoThanks for the insight on email. I stand corrected. However I still think that you can't compare Twitter to email. By now Twitter is widely accepted. And I still don't see how we would _rely_ on it for communication. Its a micro-blogging service, might as well call it "follow my random thoughts and I'll follow yours", which obviously works for a lot of people. We should start treating it as a enterntainment tool and not as a fabric of modern society without which news would not propagate throughout this world. There is waaaay too much hype around Twitter. The day I saw CNN read random twitter feed is the day I died a little inside.
- rimantas 17y agoNo, the point of email is not attachements or being paperless. It is the speed.
- omouse 17y agoUh, there was no clear business need. Businesses were fine with using fax machines and the telephone. If there was a clear business need, XEROX would have capitalized on it since they had some of the first networked PCs.
- joubert 17y agoBefore Twitter, there was no way to Tweet.
- bbgm 17y agoI've been in enough situations where direct messaging on Twitter has the best and most efficient means of communication to dismiss Twitter not serving a need. Yes, the utility of Twitter is almost always overblown by the media, but we shouldn't underestimate how many use it as part of their regular communication workflow.
- joshfinnie 17y agoTwitter is basically a phone book. Imagine loosing your address book on your iPhone or blackberry; you'd be lost. Direct messaging might be a great way to communicate with people, but that is mostly because that direct message then gets emailed and texted to the individual.
- rythie 17y agoE-mail predates even the internet, it was obviously clear before people had terminals let alone computers on their desks that we needed means of electronic communication. From Wikipedia: "E-mail predates the inception of the Internet, and was in fact a crucial tool in creating the Internet. MIT first demonstrated the Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS) in 1961.[17] It allowed multiple users to log into the IBM 7094[18] from remote dial-up terminals, and to store files online on disk. This new ability encouraged users to share information in new ways. E-mail started in 1965 as a way for multiple users of a time-sharing mainframe computer to communicate. Although the exact history is murky, among the first systems to have such a facility were SDC's Q32 and MIT's CTSS." Unless your saying that E-mail wasn't solving a problem since we had the Electric telegraph so we didn't need anything better? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_telegraph http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_telegraph
- joubert 17y agohttp://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion/443634 http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion/443634
- nick-dap 17y agoAnd as we know a lot of it has been blown out of proportions thanks to the potent mix of random "twats" and overeager traditional media. As a tool it has its uses. However, I strongly believe that 45 million people don't _need_ this as a tool and use it purely for enterntainment. To say that we rely on Twitter for communication is simply false.
- axod 17y agoAlso the 45m figure probably means 45m people have created an account at some point, tried it, thought it was ridiculous, and stopped using it. Daily users is probably far lower.
- voom 17y agoI was banned for using the word "twat" (modded down mercilessly even after I posted the full definition because I wasn't sufficiently humble about it). Look up the account, sharkfish. http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=sharkfish http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=sharkfish What is wrong with you people. Can't you see this poster is ruining the forum!?!? </sarcasm>
- zach 17y agoSure it does. The problem is how to do public chat via your mobile phone. Of course, by now that's a footnote...