Is Twitter Useful or Just More Noise?
on 04.08.08, 05:52am in software, weblog • Comments (6)
Twitter is an interesting beast. Heck, it took several false starts before I started using it, and I’m still not to sure of it’s overall value, other than an easy way for me to update my status that gets aggregated. I still maintain that it’s a pretty silly concept - it’s nothing more than finger, except that my .plan is in the sky and it aggregates all the people that I follow.
On the other hand, Twitter is somewhat disruptive:
- It’s completely killed my usage of Facebook, which has now turned into a conduit in which I push Twitter updates to. I rarely visit the site anymore, except to check the occasional mail there. Most of the status updates from my connections start with “is twittering” anyways.
- Companies are starting to use Twitter to track what people are saying about them.
- Getting ‘real time news’ is faster out of Twitter. Last night, the quickest way to get the details of Google’s AppEngine announcements was by checking Tweetscan. This was hours before the search engine crawlers hit it and way before people were blogging about it.
- Lots of applications / mashups are being built to better understand the traffic Twitter is generating and extend the service.
And the downside? The signal to noise ratio on Twitter is massive. It’s worse than with blogs.
While I find that I prefer a client application like Twitterific to the web interface (see here for other tools), it does enable you to easily post every random thought. And boy, people sure do have diarrhea of the mouth when given an open mic to talk with all day long.
Another thing that I don’t understand is how people can follow the stream of consciousness of massive numbers. Really - how can you follow 39,000+ people? Or is it just another “a-list” popularity contest to see who can amass the largest number of “friends”? Who knows.
Anyways, the jury is still out on how useful Twitter really is .. Time will tell, I guess.
Oh, and finally, my twitter status updates are here if you’re interested in reading what coffee I’m drinking this morning. 
Wayne Sutton (April 8, 2008 @ 8:00 am)
Is Twitter useful? Yes
Is twitter an “a-list” popularity contest? To some yes
But I would say that twitter can be whatever you want it to be. Twitter is my personal “Can you hear me now network” like the verizon commercial. Yes there is a lot of noise on twitter but since twitter is user controlled, you control how much noise you want to see in your twitter stream. You don’t have to follow everyone who’s following you and you don’t have to the follow A-list bloggers. You can follow your local community to have hyper-local twitter conversations see (http://triangletweetup.pbwiki.com/) for example.
Either way enjoy twitter and the conversations.
I’m @waynesutton on twitter and I think twitter is useful.
Jennifer (April 8, 2008 @ 8:20 am)
I am pretty much selective of the people and information I want to receive on twitter because I do not have the time to read a thousand feeds. It is almost an IM feature in a way for me with some just to see WHERE are you and then we get in contact in other ways..
Twitter though serves more as an RSS feed for me because I get the NYTimes on there and some other major papers that I HAVE to read for work and research projects.
The noise can be massive but if you choose the right people to follow or just ignore what some people say at times then you can manage it correctly. I have not truly investigated using the other applications more - twitteriffic - only because reading from the web is easier for me.
Thank you for an informative blog post!
Brad Garland (April 8, 2008 @ 8:20 am)
I sometimes don’t think people are given the benefit of the doubt. Yes there is ANOTHER medium to distribute your information, some consider pointless information but I think people are able to decipher extremely quickly the ‘noise’ no matter the case. Very much like my feed reader, I don’t look at every article I scan and see something I’m into and drill down. It takes very little time on my part and I feel more connected to those around me.
Lyell Petersen (April 8, 2008 @ 8:26 am)
I have to agree with @waynesutton on the signal to noise ratio. YOU control that ratio by deciding whom to follow and whom to not.
Granted it may take a week or so to determine if someone you are following is going to generate signal, but if they don’t, unfollowing them is a three-click operation.
And even those who generate signal sometimes post what they’re drinking from time to time.
I’m @93octane on twitter and I’m a twitterholic.
darrenkeith (April 8, 2008 @ 8:43 am)
I had to step away from twitter for a week so I could get back to regular blogs. It took me a 2nd time around to begin using twitter and after that I was so sucked in. Now I find myself having to really monitor myself when it comes twitter. I think it’s useful but with me I have to use it sparingly because at times I get carried away by checking it all the time.
jon (April 8, 2008 @ 8:47 am)
twitter got me to this post, and i’m adding you because you live in the area
that’s been a benefit of twitter for me. i’ve learned of RLS (let’s call that Real Life Stuff) and have been turned onto things i otherwise hadn’t.
when i saw wayne twitter this, i wrote back “like life, its a bit of both”. i keep my stream private, and purposely follow only people i know In Real Life, and a number of people that i find interesting (which nowdays come from people @ responding others on stuff i could relate to). i get a *lot* of “chat room” talk, but i find it interesting, and easy to discard, if i need it.
so yeah anyway, a tool is a tool. its useful if you find a use for it.
and how is the concept “silly” because it’s “nothing more than finger”? finger is insecure, outdated, and not practical for the average bear. i understand you wanting to display your old schoolness, but c’mon yo:)