There’s a big difference between how Twitter is currently used versus its original stated intentions. It’s clear that a lot of folks don’t understand the shift that has taken place, and they’re missing out on the real value presented by Twitter.
To illustrate the shift, let me share some of the feedback we’ve gotten on a new product that GamerDNA launched just over a week ago: TweetMyGaming.com. It’s an awesome way to see real-time tweets about games on Twitter. We’re thinking of it as the “games channel” for the Twitter universe, and soon we’ll be rolling out even more functionality which will reinforce that.
The immediate feedback from the Twitter community was electric–most people loved it. For example:
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muckp: @TweetMyGaming is going to restart my interest in gaming and save me money from buying crappy games. #hunch
- djWHEAT: @TweetMyGaming is pretty awesome. Watching the Real-Time Feed is mesmerizing. Saw some chick asking for a Wii Fit review to lose weight!
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matthewpruitt: RT @EAmobile: Have you guys checked out http://tweetmygaming.com yet? Awesome site. It’s a Real time feed of VG convos happening on Twitter!
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Sk1t3: Just got addicted to tweetmygaming.
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ghowley: Wow. tweetmygaming.com is pretty cool.
- “I still think twitter is incredibly stupid, how self absorbed do you have to be to think that people actually care what you are doing right that second” — commenter on Destructoid
- “Tell me I’m not the only one who doesn’t understand the fascination with Twitter, specifically the infatuation the media seems to have with it. From what I gather, Twitter is just basically a social networking status updater (a la Facebook’s status updates) just without anything else” — commenter on Joystiq
- The emergence of cool applications of Twitter’s API (aside from TweetMyGaming, this ranges as broadly as desktop applications like Twhirl to companies like Summize, which was acquired by Twitter and became search.twitter.com);
- The shift away from the use of Twitter as a pure status-update tool to something that’s much more conversational. The latter took place once twitter introduced “replies” (using the @ sign in Twitter posts) which forever changed the way people interact on Twitter. Today, it’s much closer to a public messaging system that can be either asynchronous — or as close to real-time as you want.
The bottom line: if you remember Twitter when it first came out, and still think of it as a status-update tool–then you’re missing out on the innovation that’s happening here. Give it another look. If so, you might join some of these other commenters from the publicity surrounding TweetMyGaming:
- “I hated twitter when it came about but I’m a changed man now. I sign up to shit I want news on like Man United, Dtoid, Total Film, bands I like and it keeps me up to date on my mobile when I’m at work or whatever.”" — Kris S from Destructoid
- “Finally, something useful on Twitter!!” — ArchiGamer on Joystiq
- “Sure, there’s plenty of shit on Twitter that’s totally inane. Here’s the key, though: that’s true of any communication tool. The arguments against Twitter are absolutely the same things people said about blogs when they were novel; “Well, who cares what Joe Average thinks?” The answer is the same: probably not many people. But for content providers you already find interesting, it’s just a very fast real-time communication tool.” — eakolb on Kotaku
- “wow. That’s pretty strange…I just joined the dark side and signed up for a twitter account this morning :P” — kobeashi on Kotaku
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