How Twitter’s competitors do what it doesn’t
Thursday, December 11th, 2008Twitter may be the leader in the micro-blogging space, but it’s missing key features — features its competitors offer. Will Twitter pick up on these omissions?? We know groups are coming to Twitter, but we’re not so sure about some of these other useful features…
Friendfeed: Twitter++
Although some say Friendfeed isn’t a direct competitor to Twitter, I think it is. Twitter has one way to deliver content to the service — you type a thought in 140 characters or less and post it — but consider the fact that Friendfeed can do that in a flash, as well as import your blog, Flickr photos, YouTube videos, Twitter stream, and countless other update types from services across the Web. It becomes apparent that if you’re looking to do more than post a few quick comments, Twitter is inept.
Without doing much work at all, your entire life can be put in full view on Friendfeed. Want your friends to know what you just added to you Netflix queue (or see what movies your friends added themselves)? Check out Friendfeed. Want to comment on new photos your father uploaded to Flickr? Friendfeed is waiting. More services are adding Twitter plug-ins to send links to your Twitter profile, but they’re mostly useless: a TinyURL doesn’t replace the design, interaction, and usability of Friendfeed’s service.
Performing just one task is fine for a while, but as our desire to do more takes hold, it’s Friendfeed that satisfies that desire. Not Twitter.
Identi.ca: Open Twitter
What’s so wrong with autonomy? That’s Identi.ca’s model. Unfortunately, it’s not Twitter’s.
Identi.ca is an Open Network Service with its entire code base made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. It uses the OpenMicroBlogging protocol, which allows friends on other services to receive Identi.ca notices. In essence, Identi.ca’s main goal is to give power back to the user and allow them to take their data and source code and create their own micro-blogging service if Identi.ca itself doesn’t cut it. That’s more than can be said for Twitter.
Sure, it may be tough to monetize that business model, but wouldn’t it be nice if you could take your Twitter profile and updates and create your own Twitter network after the service sends you a Fail Whale one time too many? If you’re a Twitter user, haven’t you come across a slew of issues that you would like to improve? If Twitter was an open platform like Identi.ca, you could take a stab at it. Unfortunately, it isn’t and you’re trapped in a service that suffers from instability issues and other quirks that can only be addressed by its developers. That’s a shame.
Present.ly: Twitter Groups
It may be designed for businesses (more on that in the next section), but Present.ly does something that Twitter doesn’t (at least not yet): it allows users to create groups.
Unlike Twitter, Present.ly provides companies with the tools necessary to create their own micro-blogging network on the service and separate all the users into groups. In other words, companies can place management into one group and lower-level employees into others so discussions can be had between members without worry of unwelcome employees joining in.
From a consumer standpoint, adding groups to Twitter seems like a logical move. Friends would be able to form networks around similar interests and, like Facebook groups, Twitter groups would add a whole new level of engagement to the service and create another reason to use it. Get with the program, Twitter.
Yammer: Twitter while you work
Yammer provides the same, basic experience as Twitter, but with one difference: It’s for businesses. Much like Present.ly, Yammer provides businesses with the opportunity to create their own, private micro-blog network.
It allows only those with the company’s domain name to join an organization’s network, which is a sticking point in many businesses employ contractors. But aside from that single issue, Yammer’s ability to appeal to businesses highlights a big issue with Twitter: it provides less value to businesses than it could. Granted, Twitter isn’t necessarily designed with the business professional in mind, but shouldn’t it be? The service has become a hub for individual employees to connect and network with colleagues, but in the process, it has left the companies themselves out of the loop and allowed services like Yammer and Present.ly to pick up the pieces.
As the world’s largest micro-blogging tool, it seems only logical to cater to as many customers as possible. With the infrastructure in place already, allowing the enterprise to get in on the Twitter action with access to its huge user base would make the service even more compelling and render Yammer and Present.ly practically irrelevant. The game is Twitter’s to lose.
Don Reisinger is a social network addict. Check out his profiles on Twitter, Friendfeed, Identi.ca, Last.fm, and Flickr.
Read more here:
How Twitter’s competitors do what it doesn’t
It’s the weekend, so time to review the week’s web tech news, reviews and analysis on ReadWriteWeb. On the product side we looked at the first reported Android phone, checked out the winners of the Firefox 3 Extensions contest, reviewed Microsoft’s new 3D online photo app, dabbled with screencasting, and reported on Pandora’s imminent demise. On the trends side we tried to define our perfect online music service, investigated whether FriendFeed’s popularity is fading, checked out 10 emerging Web platforms, and polled you on the most exciting web apps on the Web today. We also introduced you to ReadWriteWeb’s new feature: the Enterprise Channel!
This week, the news broke that the HTC Dream, the first handset to run Android (aka “the Google Phone”) has been approved by the FCC. In the documents provided, it appears that we have now a release date for this highly anticipated phone: November 10th, 2008. So what will the HTC Dream offer? We take a look at some of the details and unknowns surrounding this device. 
Mozilla just wrapped up its 
This week, Microsoft publicly launched 
Sharing web pages in a conversation shouldn’t be as tricky as it is. Sometimes you’re on the phone, or speaking to a group of people and there isn’t a handy way to bring people along with you from page to page and then let them have easy access to those pages after the conversation is through. Enter 
No matter how you feel about 
In this post we reviewed 10 promising developer platforms for the Web. We’re not talking about the obvious ones either, like Facebook, iPhone, OpenSocial or even Twitter. Those have been covered extensively already. This list features some of our favorite ‘lesser known’ web developer platforms. There are many other excellent developer platforms that we didn’t mention, so as always please use the comments to point out your own favorites.
Lachlan Hardy this week twittered an interesting question: What are the three things online that are exciting you most? Lachlan was asked this question as part of a newspaper article 
The break-up of behemoth, vertically integrated enterprises commenced in the 1970’s, got a boost from junk bond financing in the 1980’s, and accelerated in the 1990’s with globalization. Now, late in the 2000’s, Social Media (aka Web 2.0) is adding another gear that will accelerate the fundamental restructuring of the enterprise. This is a big story. That is why ReadWriteWeb is dedicating a new “channel” to Enterprise 2.0.
It’s early in the lifespan of the MySpace platform but a week after 
We all know by now that social networks aren’t a passing fad. They’re no longer used solely by early adopters, young adults, or tech enthusiasts - social networks are now mainstream. However, a 
This week, Facebook announced an update to privacy controls to make use of the friend lists feature, among other enhancements. The new privacy features increase the granular control that Facebook has been known for. Users now have the option of showing private information, including photos, to only specific friends (entered one at a time or by utilizing a pre-made list), or to “friends of friends” (i.e., your friends and the people they are friends with — not unlike how LinkedIn works). 
Amazon wants to do for physical product shipping what it’s done for web storage and computing power - leverage its surplus infrastructure built up by Amazon.com to offer cheap and easy infrastructure for all kinds of other activities. This week Amazon 
This week last100 wrote an analysis of 
AltSearchEngine’s editor Charles Knight was out of town this past week attending the Search Engines Strategies (SES) conference in New York. The highlight of the week was the Search panel on Thursday where alternative search engines 