Twitter has just axed the ability to receive updates by text message (for people outside the US, Canada and India). This radically restricts its appeal and usefulness as this means both you can’t use it as a free news-by-text service anymore but also it reduces the instant interactivity which appealled to many.
More details in my post over at PoliGeeks and on Alex Foster’s blog. As you’ll see from those posts, there are workarounds to continue to get updates via your phone, but they aren’t nearly as convenient or easy to use as the previous texting service.
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13 Comments
A nation mourns for this unloved gimmick…Move over video discs and Betamax, there’s more room needed on the shelf.
I never really “got” Twitter. It seems really hard to use, very difficult to set up, almost impossible to ind help or assistance.
There goes the government’s plans to allow pupils to submit their A-levels in txt-speak, will the inhumanity of this credit crunch never end…
@Liam – Unless you are totally addicted to text it doesn’t work. I thought I was, but never subscribed to text alerts which I thought I would. I’m bored of text messages – they irritate.
I recently deleted my twitter account as I just didn’t know what to write in it – I find facebook status updates easier – maybe because I have facebook on more as I do tons of other stuff on it.
I always found it suspicious (yes I am quite suspicious and paranoid) that the text messages were free – my line of thought went – mmm I’ve been addicted to sms in the past and when has a company ever given anything away, hang on, i could totally get addicted to this and then end up being fleeced when twitter turn the inevitable costs on..so off I went…
I suppose I’m just too cynical…
Before you all rush to bury Twitter you should at least do a bit of research -no?
“Despite all of its recent up-time troubles, Twitter’s growth has been on a tear lately. According to Google Ad Planner data, time spent is off the charts at a staggering 550 seconds per user in the US and 560 seconds globally. Compare those figures to 480 seconds per user for CNN – a site that’s at least 10 years older. In addition…daily unique users are skyrocketing as well.’ – Steve Rubel at Micro Persuasion
Not that I think the opinions of suspicious paranoids, people who think Twitter is *difficult* (doh!) or those who trot out the same old (and wrong) Betamax argument are worth jack in any case.
I only ever used Twitter to update my facebook status, really, and that hasn’t worked for a few weeks now…
I didn’t think it was too difficult…it’s too easy if anything *doh*
No, you were the paranoid one. Mr Pennington, the earlier commenter I was actually referring to, on the other hand said:
I never really “got” Twitter. It seems really hard to use, very difficult to set up, almost impossible to ind (sic) help or assistance.
As I said, doh!
Erm… why? I think it just depends whether you’re technically minded or not. The explanation on the twitter site isn’t actually very good. It’s so intuitively wrong that you just text A Given Number with your update – how can that work without you – or someone – paying for it? I think that was what held me up at the start.
Re: your user figures from Steve Rubel – explain how they translate into a profitable business model.
I think the problem with Twitter is that, once you realise how it works, it seems so completely pointless that you can’t understand why anyone invented it. That was certainly why I assumed it was more complicated than it actually was.
Basically, either you are an obsessive-compulsive texter or you ain’t. I am and am currently going cold turkey. Damnit. I’ll probably have to start blogging more often again.
Aren’t there geek forums for discussing this kind of thing? (I speak as a former geek.)
If I wanted informed discussion on Einstein’s general theory of relativity, I’m afraid I wouldn’t come to Lib Dem Voice (though of course Lib Dem policy should be informed by Einstein’s universal genius).
Surely there are forums whose readership is better suited to expert discussion about Twitter (whatever that may be), and where that fascinating subject can be pursued without distracting us from our primary purpose of giving advice to our Dear Leader?
While it has perhaps veered a bit off topic, the fact is that most political parties and a lot of campaigning organisations have been exploring the possibilities of Twitter as a campaigning tool. Brian Paddick used it in his campaign and had some success with it. So it isn’t completely irrelevent here, no, and no-one is forcing you to read this thread.
For those wondering, in the US, you pay to receive texts, so a setup that generates lots of texts that people choose to subscribe to has negotiating power with the telcos.
Over here, you mostly pay to send them (although I get mine free). So to us it looks like a trick of some kind because it’s free, to most users (ie USians where it’s based) it makes sense as they pay for it when they get messages.
Which is also why per capita take up in the UK is higher but they’ve had to dump the free outgoing SMSs. Ah well.
I switched from TwitterSync to the Twitter app for Facebook, doesn’t seem to be working, but it’s still a nice use of texts when I’m out or busy.
As a campaigning tool it can be useful if done right, but most people I’ve seen trying it do it wrong.