I think twitter is going to go a long way. People are finding out the benefits of networking. The ability to quickly promote yourself and brand. TO be able to help someone out with 140 is quick, fast to the point.

I wrote a blog post some time ago about twitter and traffic to your website and blog. Check it out. http://www.integralwebsolutions.co.za/Blog/EntryId/42/Twitter-tweeting-can-bring-much-needed-traffic-to-your-blog-or-website.aspx

I think that many people who are looking to up their traffic, will have to turn to twitter some time.

I found your post via Twitter (ironic, I know) and thought I should leave you a comment. Great post - be sure to keep advertising your posts and I’ll keep reading them.

Someone should Sphinn this….

Dead by summer. What kind of a life is it if you are constantly interrupted by inane messages?

I don’t have a crystal ball, but two observations:

We’re still talking about a highly fragmented marketplace (even with its recent growth spurt, Twitter is picking up less than 1% of all RSS feeds, according to your chart); and

Twitter’s growth has outpaced its ability to serve - outages, dropped Tweets and the like have been reported of late. Without a clear revenue model, Twitter’s ability to solve the growth problem is a question.

If there is a conclusion to be reached, maybe it’s that Twitter made RSS real to a whole lot of people. That’s not too shabby.

Is the perfect the way it is, but its only a matter of time before high school teenagers catch on and all the top trends are reflections of high school bathroom walls

While Twitter is a phenomenon and does have its strengths, it has its weaknesses as well. One of them being the predominantely self and brand promoting nature of it. I think people love facebook because they can learn real interesting things about people they know, and keep up with real aspects of their daily lives. It helps them to feel in touch. I think to some extent people get tired of being constantly exposed to information and advertising pitches, (in whatever form) being flung at them in such a manner. Nobody really knows for sure whether or not Twitter itself is a fad, but I think we can bank on the technology evolving into something a little more all-inclusive. Perhaps a facebook type hybrid? After all facebook’s “new look” looks like Twitter…

I think it will be around for a while, but basically it’s just the latest way to communicate and socialise online.

Personally I think it has advantages over forums in that you only follow people who interest you and can block people if needed, however unlike facebook you do tend to follow new people and make new acquaintances.

@th3maw

I agree that it will be around for quite some time to come, but I also feel that it has been completely subverted by brands and celebrities.

Networks with hundreds of thousands of followers are hardly “social” in my book.

The most interesting thing about Twitter’s popularity, in my opinion, is the older age demographic of the majority of users. If it were used predominantly by a younger age demographic, whose trends change on an almost daily basis, I would say Twitter will fade with the arrival of the next big thing. With the major fan base being an older audience, I think it has more staying power. Also, unlike other social networks like Facebook and Myspace, Twitter has become a forum for not only online socializing, but also as a pseudo-replacement for RSS readers. It’s made it that much easier to find relevant news based on your interests.

I think the Twitter naysayers will be proved to be very wrong. That’s not to say that Twitter won’t change (or even be replaced by something within a bigger platform). To regard it as merely inane and irrelevant misses the point entirely and as communities develop within Twitter, so its power and relevance is revealed.

Aren’t most fads the sign of the times? Therefore, start of a new era!
It will go on… and change… and give way to even bigger and better things… just like with any era! =)