TechCrunch broke the story and has recently been confirmed.  Let the discussions begin…

How simple is too simple?  Does simplicity facilitate usability?  Do we sacrifice effectiveness for usability?  I start to ask myself these questions as I log on to twitter.com with far less frequency as once before.  Will this 140-character revolution continue on its meteoric rise, or will it become a nostalgic web property of the past?

I have long praised Twitter for creating a whole new platform for communication.  The service is no short of revolutionary; however, I cannot help myself thinking that there lacks a degree of depth in the service.  For me, Twitter’s charm has worn off quite a bit.  This is due in part to a number of factors, none more important that these two:

1) Lack of Metadata and/or Metrics

For the most part, micro-blogging comes and goes.  The stream of messages (depending on how many you are following) is gone in a number of seconds/minutes.  A 140-character message, in Twitter’s case, holds almost no long-term value.  This is a direct result of a platform with little to no metadata.  Besides embedding links and maybe hashtags, a tweet loses a great deal of meaning after it’s initially sent.

2) Better Web Alternatives

Two web services, Facebook and FriendFeed, have undoubtadly looked to Twitter for some degree of inspiration.  Both serve a more complete and interactive micro-blogging platform, as compared to Twitter’s current offering.  Most importantly, they are in a much better position to combat the issue of meta-data and the shelf life of a post.

So, I’ll ask the questions I posed earlier in the post:

How simple is too simple? — Does simplicity facilitate usability? — Do we sacrifice effectiveness for usability?

Twitter is in danger of being replaced by more robust web services.  Simplicity, in my opinion, may ultimately cripple Twitter.  I have long been a proponent of the service, and still wish them the best.  From an end-user’s perspective, however, I am not getting enough value.  Additionally, the service has remained mostly identical from when I signed up over a year ago.  With massive mainstream exposure and a ridiculous spike in users, I feel as though Twitter could have extended the service’s functionality.  For instance, we still don’t have the ability to create groups!  That just doesn’t seem right!  I definitely understand the appeal of simplicity, but in Twitter’s case, this simplicity may come at a price.

Update: Just hours after posting this article, Twitter updated its user interface for everyone.  Now users are shown Trending Topics right on their Twitter homepage.  In addition, users are able to search tweets and save search results for later reference.  A huge step forward for Twitter.

There is somewhat of a war waging between both the Twitter and FriendFeed services as of late.  More specifically, a “battle” between the services’ users.  For the most part, FriendFeed users LOVE FriendFeed and CAN’T STAND Twitter, whereas Twitter users LOVE Twitter and CAN”T STAND FriendFeed.  So, the natural follow-up to this debate is to ask the question: Who’s right?

Twitter, for better or for worse, has emerged into the mainstream.  FriendFeed, on the other hand, tends to “fly under the radar”, and seems to appeal only to the tech-savvy and early adopter crowds.  Mind you, this is exactly how Twitter once existed to the general public less than a year ago.  So, I guess the first topic to explore would be to see where Twitter went “right” and where FriendFeed went “wrong”.

How much is too much?

The common denominator in both the Twitter and FriendFeed services lie in their ability to facilitate converstation, acting as a “global chatroom,” where users are free to share their thoughts and see what others are talking about.

Twitter does exactly this, and only this.  Twitter remains an extremely minimalist service that has succeeded in creating its own platform for communicating…in short, 140-character capsules.
FriendFeed, on the other hand, takes this style of communication to the next level.  Users are able to bring in content from around the web to share and discuss material with no restrictions.  The platform is the quickest and most efficient “real-time” platform on the web allowing users to have conversations instead of just messages.  The service also boasts an amazing number of tools and filters to help users “cut through the noise.”

So why hasn’t everyone jumped onto FriendFeed?  It’s clearly more robust with features, doing everything Twitter does and much much more.  So why do the majority of people still prefer Twitter over Friendfeed?

The answer is: Simplicity and Familiarality.  Despite the fact that FriendFeed is a lot more powerful than Twitter, there is something to be said about the act of signing up, typing 140 characters, and becoming part of the Twittersphere.  Similarly, it is worth noting the insanely basic Twitter interface that everyone and their mother can relate to.  It’s quite possibly the most intuitive UI…it’s a stream of short messages…and THAT’S IT.
FriendFeed gives users a lot more freedom and little direction after signing up.  This is why the tech-savvy LOVE it, and the less technical CAN’T STAND it.  FriendFeed allows its users to use the service however they please, establish various feeds and filters, post to different networks, and tweak a ton of account settings.  Overall, FriendFeed falls short in the two areas Twitter excels in: Simplicity and Familiarality.  As Michael Arrington puts it, “FriendFeed Is In Danger Of Becoming The Coolest App No One Uses.”

So who wins the Race?

As Twitter’s user base and third party support continues to skyrocket, it would be hard to imagine someone dethroning the popular service.  That doesn’t mean there isn’t room for FriendFeed, however.  The service is way too powerful to die.  I think it is best summed up in a post by Alex Scoble (shown below).  He states, “Twitter is like a pager…friendfeed is like a smart cell phone…”  To which Justin Korn replies, “Not everyone needs the smart cell phone…just a basic one will do.”

Is FriendFeed just ahead of its time?  Will people eventually start to consider leaving Twitter for FriendFeed, just as many of us have ditched our basic cell phones for “smarter” ones?

Ironically enough, it is on these smart phones where a huge number of tweets are sent everyday.  The timing could not have been more perfect for Twitter.  Unfortunately for FriendFeed, it looks like they may have to wait in order for time to catch up with them.

“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”

-Charles Caleb Colton (1780 – 1832)

There is an obvious trend that exists within today’s internet-based businesses.  Companies are “stealing” other companies’ ideas, concepts, and functionality.  Well, stealing may not be the most accurate description.  I believe the term borrowing may better sum up what is actually happening.  In any event, this post discusses the recent events of companies like Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, and Google; and how these internet giants and revolutionaries play an integral role in each other’s future development and innovation strategies.

Facebook to Stream “Real Time”

New Facebook: Twitter + FriendFeed + 175 million users

-VentureBeat Headline March 4, 2009

Perhaps the most noteworthy example of “Valley borrowing” involves the redesign of Facebook’s homepage.  In an effort to remain fresh, Facebook has taken a page out of Twitter’s playbook and will now be augmenting users’ ‘News Feed’ to incorporate a “real-time” stream of actions, comments, etc.

Twitter has garnered massive attention for their real time communication platform, and for good reason.  It seems as if everyone is now re-focusing their sites on incorporating some level of “real-time” communication.  It will be interesting to see how Facebook incorporates this microblogging functionality within their huge social network; and most importantly, how users will react and take to it.

FriendFeed Offers Up Free R&D

I had dinner with Scoble and Louis Gray, they both said that Friendfeed was Facebook’s R&D Department. Interesting, I think there’s some truth to it.

-Jeremiah Owyang

Maybe the biggest victim of “Valley borrowing” has been felt by FriendFeed.  So much so that they have even been referred to as the R&D department for several web-based companies.  This aggregation/life-streaming service has been imitated by various internet companies, but none more popular then by both Facebook and Google.

So What’s the Takeaway?

Imagine, for example, Nike, Inc. (NYSE: NIKE) released all of its product details, manufacturing processes, and company resources to the public.  In other words, everybody would have the ability to see how Nike manufactures any particular product, the costs associated, and where the resources are coming from.  This is a pretty wild concept for most.  But this describes how a web-based business exists to the general audience, and most importantly, to current and potential competitors; completely open and virtually barrier-free.  In essence, everybody becomes a source for research and development.

This illustrates why the web have matured so quickly.  Web businesses constantly feed off of their surroundings, augmenting, tweaking, and innovating on top of previous platforms.  And this is exactly why certain web technologies are adopted in such large quantities.  Imagine, again, that all companies operated like the Nike example above.  What sort of companies would take shape from this freedom of information?  Most likely, they would be some of the most efficient, and cost effective companies ever created.  And that is exactly what we are seeing in today’s web firms; some of the most productive “web hybrids” to date.

It boils down to the remaining open and transparent.  And we have seen the benefits in doing this.  Twitter’s open application programming interface (API) standard allowed the service to reach audiences well beyond its initial reach.  We are starting to see more and more web firms gravitate towards open API’s as a result.

The type of comeptition created by “Valley borrowing” is unbelievably fast-paced.  In just a matter of months,  a successful web firm may find themselves forced to shift focus in effort to keep from becoming obsolete.  Web firms are now expected to create the most complete platform possible for their customers/users.  And isn’t that what business is all about?  Creating the best most efficient product for the customer?

What is the Real-time Web?

If you’re not quite sure what the ‘real-time’ web is, maybe you’ve heard it called life-streaming, micro-blogging, or tweeting.  It really doesn’t matter what you call it.  The ‘real time’ web (RTW) is all about one thing: the fast transfer of knowledge.  It’s really as simple as that.  How fast can I notify, update, and/or interact with a community of like-minded individuals?  It’s a direct extension of the blogging format, with far less barriers, a constant stream of information, searchability, a much larger audience…and we are just at the BEGINNING of this phenomenon.

We are just at the beginning…

At the forefront of this RTW revolution is Twitter.  What this once modest, still barebones service was able to do in such a short time is truly astounding.  It has surpassed that “trend” phase and is slowly creeping into a [dare I say it?] mainstream service.  You may think to yourself – “So what, who cares if people use Twitter?”

What’s the point?

I guess the point that I want to hit home the most is that this really is the future of our web interactions.  It took us a few years, but we are finally leveraging this technology and connecting with other human beings instead of relying on computers, algorithms, and search results to deliver our online data (hmm…Google).  The RTW has enabled us to connect with individuals who we would never of been able to connect with otherwise.  People, for the most part are pretty amazing and you’ll be surprised how much people will give back.  Perfect example: After following theCRICKETtoy on Twitter (accidentally, I must admit),  I receive an instant direct message from the company’s owner asking if I would like one of their CRICKETtoy™ products for FREE.  Not really expecting anything out of it, I direct messaged my address back, and received the little guy in the mail in just days! (Thanks Jeff)  Point is, people want to connect with people, and the RTW finally allows us to do just that.  It doesn’t matter if your promoting a company, a service, a blog, or a product; what the RTW forces you to do is promote yourself first.  People do this by helping others, giving advice, offering their services, whatever it may be, people want to be part of this amazing ‘real-time’ exchange of ideas and information.

What does this mean?

I made a slight cut at Google before…kind of joking, but kind of serious at the same time.  Google searches are great for historical and static pages on the net, but when it comes to current and news-breaking events, nothing comes close to the RTW.  I find myself gravitating towards Twitter Search for various information now.  There is so much power that lies in the RTW and its huge community of people that conventional search engines tend to seem “old school”.  Before pages are indexed in search engines, and even before a blogger can create a post, someone from the Twitter community has already wrote a 140-character gem that will be retweeted, discussed, and spread virally throughout the internet instantly.  So powerful.

What should I do?

Get on Twitter if you haven’t already.  Create an account and start connecting with people that interest you.  Guy Kawasaki has some great articles on how to get started on Twitter.  Read both, here and here.

Once you have built up a solid community of twitterites, I recommend utilizing the power of FriendFeed.  Check out the RTW jedi himself, Robert Scoble, on how to get started with Friendfeed.

Most importantly…

I want to hear from you guys who are part of the RTW.  I want to get your feedback and your opinions.  I would like to do a more comprehensive follow-up and would love to hear back from the community

• What are you thoughts about the future of the RTW?
• More useful: Friendfeed or Twitter?
• How should companies embrace the power of the RTW?
• How many third party Twitter applications do you use?
• How do you get your news?