How Dumb is Twitter?

In the January 5th edition of Newseek, Twitter was called the “Dumbest Innovation of the Century.” And to conclude: “Memo to tweeters: we don’t care what you think.” Obviously this is more snark than proclamation; this was probably written by a staff writer with at least 2 Twitter accounts. The fact that most people on Twitter  post inane or self-indulgent tripe is a given, and that’s actually why the program is fun. Even Newsweek has a Twitter account. So does Fox News, and their’s got hacked the other day.

Like other innovative social platforms, there’s been much talk about how Twitter can capitalize on its popularity and become profitable. They’re expecting to release a business model this year. People ask, “would ads drive away hardcore users?” (This sounds just like MySpace…and Facebook…) Other companies seem to be doing okay on Twitter. Dell’s page, called the DellOutlet, has brought in at least $1M in revenue. That’s all fine, but Twitter is just one of a million entry points. It seems that everyone (and by “everyone” I mean general users, bloggers, businesspeople, etc) are letting Twitter just be Twitter. At least for now. It’s refreshing to think that in an age of Instant-everything, we can still find ways to let online entities grow organically.