Is Twitter Revolutionizing the Web? - Tim O'Reilly

[leeroynaggins]

Was in Tokyo during the earthquake in March last year.

Twitter was the only way to communicate for many people.

It's much better than email in an emergency situation.

[erikis894]

His answer was a simple "no"

[cutelyaware]

His answer was a simple "no", but then he drove to a much deeper question of what's going on in the larger sense. He says don't worry about Skynet, and I agree. His reason is that people are integral parts of the man/machine hive mind that is being knitted together. The only thing I will add is the observation that the human/computer nodes in the internet function exactly like neurons in a brain. Nuf said.

[DudeWithaPage]

no

it gives justin beiber fans a sick satifacation with knowing what kinda muffin he is eating....

[moushuusati]

He's saying that you people come on to every new little piece of shiny technology that comes your way.

[buzzybeemarketing]

I don't have high hopes for Twitter. Its popularity is driven by internet marketers, MLMers and some powerful people out of Silicon Valley. And now the liberal news media is on the band wagon. Twitter isn't a very advanced idea. A newbie programmer could have put it together.

[astilla29]

is there really a need?

[brianahier1]

Seems strange that most of these anti-Twitter comments are from relatively obscure folks that might have nothing important to say anyway. You can say want you want about Mr. O'Reilly's point of view, but discounting the obvious power of Twitter is silly...

[dirty1dizzle]

If Tim O' Reilly is asking if Twitter has revolutionized the internet i am about to cancel my subscription to SAFARI BOOKS ONLINE.

Twitter is a great function, but that is all. It is nothing more than a FUNCTION A FUNCTION PEOPLE

in NO WAY HAS TWITTER REVOLUTIONIZED THE INTERNET haha

[dirty1dizzle]

Wow just lost so much respect for Tim Oreilly...

new low..

[HANDGEM]

I once came upon a barrel of fish. At the bottom of the barrel were the stinkiest fish of the group. but then i rolled the barrel to one side & discovered that a man was lying there, talking, talking twittering away, to no-one really. He was the stinkiest . . . no he was the stankiest!

[Saktoth]

Twitter is rubbish, users had to invent the @ and # conventions to make up for its shortcomings and lack of tagging or response mechanisms (which are conventions almost as old as the net!). Its just a poor mans short format messageboard. Whats different is the degree to which it is used, which can only possibly be put down to good PR.

[humanist7117]

He is infected with the "you know" virus.

[swankrecords]

I never could get into Twitter. I guess many people cry for attention.

[Daritto7117]

I HATE TWITTER. I made an account and deleated it. Seriously, and Im 22. It's so plain and theres nothing exciting about it at all.

[EmelinaChaCha]

I have a lot of geek friends who have used the internet for a long time.. not one will touch it. What is the driving force behind twitter? The mainstream media?

[jmminu]

Twitter adds to the information overload and every day's junk... we could definitely do without... people who don't like to make efforts writing good stuff are happy using twitter.. it's fast, it's easy, it doesn't require much effort.... But what Tim O' is saying is interesting and those writing twitter off might want to listen to the whole interview first... In Japan since mobile email came to existence 12 years ago, people have written more short messages than anytime in history.

[thpt]

Psychologically, people who say "you know"... do not. It's a verbal clue. This dude needs to consciously pick a different delay method.

[andid]

I'm typically right on top of internet trends, but I think twitter is overrated. It's like updating your facebook status all day, but no one's watching unless you're famous or popular. Besides text-to-internet, I don't understand how it's revolutionary. YT was a much larger revolution and it didn't even get a nod.

[pakratmak]

It goes one of two ways. Either we embrace the speed and condensation of this trendy thing or we face a paradigm shift that retreats from shortening attention spans and conditioning users to becoming little more than soundbite generators.

As a personal preference, I'm choosing the latter, for better or worse.

[neotoy]

Realtime communicaiton will always be relevant.. twitter however is probably just a fad.

[sams0606]

knowledge is power.

[m0nkeybl1tz]

I disagree. That's the way communication tends to be trending: very short, and very public.

[JephN]

I think it is to an extent, because it's a peek into little portions of other peoples' lives.

[valgehiir]

to answer the question, no, it is not.

but it is a silly, useless thingy