June 2012

What makes Twitter Twitter?

Adrian Short:

I view the latest announcement from Twitter to independent developers with a suspicion bordering on contempt. Delivering a consistent Twitter experience is a comprehensive rejection of everything that Twitter has stood for and that has made Twitter great.

Twitter’s original decision to scale the business before working out how it would make money seems to be backfiring. It turns out all the things that make Twitter a great product, fly in the face of what’s needed to generate revenue. This is especially true given its pursuit of an ad-supported business model – a strange choice when many would happily pay to use it.

I’ve always felt the idea behind Twitter would have been more successful in the long term if it had been designed more like a protocol rather than a product. By taking the route it did, it’s destined to become another service on the web that will ultimately fade into obscurity.

Twitter could have been the new email. Instead it’s likely to become the next Myspace.

Does Google Have Any Social Skills at All?

Sam Biddle:

Everything new from Google is prima facie fantastic, and served with the best intentions. Google is a monolithic company, sure, but it’s filled with geniuses who want to make your life easier through technology. Nobody’s faulting their ambition, or questioning its motives. But we have to wonder: Are these new things meant for regular people, or the data-obsessed, grace-deficient Silicon Valley nerd vanguard?

Built to Not Last

Khoi Vinh:

Several times a year, Apple rolls out hardware products that are, in terms of pure design smarts and innovation, leagues beyond what their competitors are capable of. Their machines are more beautiful, better built and, admittedly, longer-lasting than just about any other high tech hardware out there. But if the durability of, say, a Dell laptop is two or three years, and if Apple’s hardware improves on that two or even three times, it’s still not doing that much better than the mean. What would be really impressive is an iPod or iPhone that lasts for decades.

I felt an immediate and desperate yearning for the new MacBook Pro when it was unveiled, as I do after many of Apple’s product announcements. Yet I soon realised that I can wait a little longer before upgrading my current set-up. In fact, I’m finding myself looking at people using older Apple hardware with increasing admiration.

As such, I’m not sure I buy into Khoi’s argument. Apple product can last if treated with care, and those scratches perhaps highlight a problem with our own attitudes, not Apple’s.

Be sure to read the comments and Khoi’s follow up too.

The Slow Web

Jack Cheng:

Timely not real-time. Rhythm not random. Moderation not excess. Knowledge not information. These are a few of the many characteristics of the Slow Web. It’s not so much a checklist as a feeling, one of being at greater ease with the web-enabled products and services in our lives.

I like the sound of the Slow Web.

Flying The Flag

Andrew Mitchell, the International Development secretary, has unveiled a new logo that will appear on overseas aid provided by his department; be it grain packets, schools or water pumps.

Flipping The Bird

With a worsening financial crisis and continued destruction of the world’s natural resources, there are undoubtedly more important things to worry about than Twitter’s slightly tweaked bird logo. Yet here we are.

MATTER: Welcome Clearleft

I’m stupidly excited to be working with Phil, Jeremy and the rest of the Clearleft team on MATTER, a new home for independent long-form journalism focused on the big issues in science and technology. We had our first workshop this week, and the neutrons are already firing about some of the possible directions we can this.