Evan Williams on what's behind Twitter's explosive growth

http://www.ted.com In the year leading up to this talk, the web tool Twitter exploded in size (up 10x during 2008 alone). Co-founder Evan Williams reveals that many of the ideas driving that growth came from unexpected uses invented by the users themselves.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Watch the Top 10 TEDTalks on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/top10

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Entertainment

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[duba3988]

twitter is not for me

[ImOnTheTube]

Twitter is something that again shows the true face of our present society's attention seeking unstable egos. We have to know everything about everyone so we can compare our lives to others just to see if were worth more, less or about the same. Is this really how we want to spend our time? Besides, live news feeds were invented a long time ago. If you have something important to say to someone you gain enough courage to meet them personally or at least give them a call. Absolute crap.

[juanmarketing]

Pretty average talk to be the founder of Twitter, don't you think?

[najemelmushtary]

Twitter ..... a stalker's dream.

[KittyyyLaceyao602]

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[SpaceHeaterStudios]

This is a very thorough overview of the history and complexities of twitter. Its important to understand the purpose of Twitter and how it is commonly used so that businesses can reach their customers in the most effective way.

[instereovideos]

Hey, great speech. Twitter is narcissistic bullshit, and if you have one you should close it.

[robotpanda77]

I just tweeted that I am commenting on youtube. DURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

[tripleredx]

And yet, I bet you still use failbook.

[TweetPit]

So many people think Twitter is just for telling friends that you're "on the toilet" or "eating some soup", but if you think that then you're missing out in a massive way. Twitter can be used for so many amazing things as this talk shows, and the more people that "get it", the faster and bigger their growth will be. I think Twitter should change the "what are you doing" box/question to something with a broader meaning! I ignored Twitter for a year until I understood its uses... now I love it!

[modelmotion]

Odeo rocked back in the day:):):)