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I think "messages without a recipient" have been around for quite a while, and we call them broadcast messages. DHCP does this. Radio does this. Blogs do this.

by shaddi 17y ago

I think "messages without a recipient" have been around for quite a while, and we call them broadcast messages. DHCP does this. Radio does this. Blogs do this. I'm not saying that Twitter doesn't have an interesting innovation here (I personally think they do), but I don't think they've "discovered a new protocol". They've taken existing concepts and applied them to people.

timf 17y ago
> I think "messages without a recipient" have been around for quite a while, and we call them broadcast messages. Yeah or any number of pubsub, queue based messaging systems. What twitter has is millions of users all in one place with low barrier to get started and easy access via mobile, web, and API. It has its warts, but so do many popular things (TCP/IP for example), the thing that matters about it is that it is deployed and used heavily and in people's consciousness.