Scot Duke › Likes

I do not shop at Wal Mart if I can help it - and so why would I bother with any social network they created? - Nation Hahn

I like that chart - it puts facebook in perspective, for example, with friendster. I remember sixdegrees, I had fun in there. - Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)

Pretty Cool history of Social Networking. Wonder if there is one on Business Networking Sites? - Scot Duke

Is the comparison even relevant? FF is so much more. - Nicola Quinn

Cory: how fast they got to 100,000 users. FF got there much faster than Twitter did. - Robert Scoble

How do we even know how many users FF or Twitter has? Do they release numbers or are these all EWAG? - Brian Sullivan

"FF is to Twitter as ESPN is to Football"; it's not a 0 sum game, both can win. 1/2 the content I consume on FF is twitter - Bastard Operator From FF

One could argue that a primary reason why FriendFeed is growing faster than Twitter did is because Twitter didn't have its own Twitter to give it a kick start. - Akiva Moskovitz

HI Mr. Scoble, hope you enjoy Barcelona. My grandparents are from Austurias, I adore Espana!! Viya con dios mi amigo! - Enriqueta

Wow, great points by Nicola, Sean, and Akiva...!! - Harold Cabezas

i first heard of FF on mashable--within Facebook, btw--http://bit.ly/tou5. it sounded cool & thought i'd check it out. i immediately thought it was a killer app. twitter is great, but i really think ff is almost an essential add-on to it. reason: i rarely used twitter before ff b/c it was so disorganized. it made my brain hurt trying to keep everything together. most people i know are on facebook, if anything, so i had a real hard time finding who 2 follow on twitter. not a problem w ff! - Brendten Eickstaedt

It's like saying pepperoni is winning over pizza. They are complementary. - Louis Gray

I use both. They are complementary. More success to both services. - Dave "Freedom 35"

++++Louis. - Kamath (नमः)

I think it's funny that people insist on even having these conversations and people like Robert Scoble like to fan the fire despite the fact that FF and Twitter aren't really direct competitors to each other and offer much different services with different endgames in mind. - Mattie Kenny

Although FF and Twitter are not competitors, given the finite amount of time we each have eventually users trend toward whatever they prefer and reduce usage elsewhere. They ARE complementary and those who are serious about SM will continue to use both. - Internet Strategist

IMHO - there will not be a single winner in SM or "microblogging". There will be broadly adopted high traffic services - but also a multitude of niche services from local, self and group based "networks". - Brian Roy

If they're competing for our time/attention that sorta... you know... makes them... what's the word I'm looking for... oh yeah... competitors. ;-) - Ken Sheppardson

Ken - kinda, but by that definition they are also competing with YouTube and Hulu. Everything is competing with everything else for our time... not a great definition of competitor... - Brian Roy

I didn't know that FF and Twitter were competing. I think both of them fill different needs. - Bob Blunk

I agree w/ Peter: they work more synergistcally w/ the other rather than against, though I believe FF benefits more. - sofarsoShawn

I don't get what Twitter can do that Friendfeed can't -- how are they complementary? Twitter strikes me as a weak subset of Friendfeed. I must be missing something obvious -- it wouldn't be the first time. - Sean McBride

As soon as Friendfeed involved a @reply type of thing, it will be completely superior. Its very annoying not being able to direct messages to people not following you - Tyler (Chacha)

@Sean McBride: see Tim O'Reilly's post http://bit.ly/802Q - Twitter is so lightweight and lends itself to be extensible. that's the power of simplicity. it's not weak, it's just different than FF. FF excels at aggregation. Twitter excels at one-to-many short broadcasts. think SMS. the advantage of Twitter over Friendfeed is its mainstream popularity, developer support, and extensibility... more... - ~C4Chaos

@c4chaos: Amen - Bob Blunk

Chaos - thanks for the explanation. I think I get it now. Less is more. Extreme minimalism rules in certain domains. Twitter is very swift, fleet and lightweight. Friendfeed is too bulky for certain kinds of social communication. When Tim O'Reilly speaks, I listen. (He is one of those guys who is much smarter than I am.) - Sean McBride

Lots of good points here. I agree they are somewhat complementary - Friendfeed helps me listen to my friends who are hooked on Twitter and too, um, late to the party to get Friendfeed yet. But measuring growth by how fast they got to 100,000 users? Well, that's one way, but what about loyalty, frequency and volume of use, etc.? I'd be interested to see those stats too. - Laura Norvig

This conversation right here is the exact reason why FF is surviving but not killing Twitter, they are both quite different but at the same time use each other, or at least FF uses Twitter. You can see what I mean by reading this huge conversation, find one of these on twitter. - Brendon Wadey

Ok - I am still not quite on board with Twitter. Simplicity in part means to me the fewer programs the better. Anything I can do in Twitter I can do in Friendfeed (I think). FF is quite competent at handling very brief text messages. I don't feel motivated to use Twitter. - Sean McBride

It could also be determined by the person, as in if the person started using Twitter and then came over to FF they would still be using Twitter more then FF, and so forth the other way around. ?hmm - Brendon Wadey

Twitter seems to thrive on all the gaps it has. It just waits for everyone to come along and build apps that fill them. - Jon Gosier from IM

Yea such as Pownce being very slow, which makes it hard to use. - Brendon Wadey

Well said Brendon. - Nicola Quinn

Thanks :) - Brendon Wadey

I think FF needs to be able to while importing Tweets, search for a FF user with that Twitter Stream, so I tweet @chacha102, if it finds 1(only 1 user) with that Twitter stream, it would update the link in FF to link to their Friend Feed profile. - Tyler (Chacha)

FF has no directs or @replies like Twitter. Other than that, and not counting SMSs that are not global, it's a superset to Twitter's functionality built on a much stronger foundation. Yes, they are complementary. I like FF better - Alexandros Georgiadis

a utopian desire of a bleeding edger but not realist in any of our lifetimes, to much infrastructure to disappear but morphing to proper targeting and social recommendations get highest traction makes sense - watch mad men for examples of historical transitions driven by new tech, nothing went away - IMHO of course - mike "glemak" dunn

online advertising hasnt been born yet! Advertising has not yet found the right ways to translated the aspirational and affecting experience that they can product in print and tv/film advertising to the online medium. They never found it to radio, and to me at the moment online advertising is at the level of the cheesy radio ads. Maybe one day they will find the ways, and no, spammy viral social media gimmicks won't be it either. - Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)

excellent points joelle - totally agree - mike "glemak" dunn

In my opinion he actually talks about non-targeted advertising. He continues talking in the article about how "Growth will come from putting your commercial information where people will find it when they're looking and that won't cost anything." and people do pay for that even nowadays. Google serves the targeted ad at the beginning of your search more expensive than others because it's highly visible. But yes, advertising tends to suffer cuts in moments like this. - Cibeles

Okey I've just remember this advertising system/program called Phorm in the UK, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2.... It's seems to either have been banned or not permitted to be used by Parliament, but more than likely that's the way advertising online is going to develop if the free-model wants to continue. Targeted ads in exchange of free products. - Cibeles

Buy Seagate hard drives. :-) - Robert Scoble

Yes it's very good, watched it, thanks (i've seen presenters that speak even faster :-) - Majento

Success is easy if a. you're a genius and b. your wife lets you code every night until 3 a.m. - Vincent van Wylick

I am with Vincent..lol - Scot Duke

w00t!!! Only a matter of time before it hits my phone! - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

srsly, wtf! "The new chat functionality will work on PCs with Windows XP or Vista, as well as on Macs with OS X 10.4 or later. The plugin will work with all the major browsers, including Google's own Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari." =) - Andre

the thing is - without it working with desktop clients, i can't see myself using it right now - Zee.

You can get the plugin here: http://mail.google.com/videoch... ... but there is no mention of mac support. :\ - Brandon

brandon: if you visit it from a mac you get to download the .dmg - Andre

Look Out SkyPe..here comes Google. - Scot Duke

http://gmail.com/videochat Installed the app but it doesn't work on my hosted email account yet. - Sankt Nikolaus

Have they forgotten the Gtalk desktop client? - Rameez Nooruddin

Finally... - Nate Pilling

Problogger ergo sum - sofarsoShawn

You're right Andy - the only question one can answer is "Why do you blog?" - Bill Sanders

Whether 'tis nobler to blog the slings and arrows of outrageous linkbait... Alas, Poor Yorick. - Robert Worstell

Personally, I do it for the women! - Keith Bloemendaal

Kind of in the same situation. I keep adding contacts but mainly are friends and co-workers. Have yet to use to actually network with someone. - Steve

You might want to check out Konnects.com. Sort of a cross between LinkedIn and Facebook. Allows you to build branded communities with Facebook-like functionality but none of the BS. Full disclosure: they are a client. As for LinkedIn, it's still mostly an online Rolodex and recruitment tool, though obviously there's potential to do more if they ever decide to. - Kevin Pedraja

nearly got a new job through linked in - fell through because my mum died and i had to go to switzerland for a few months - Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)

I was in the "WTF Does LinkedIn DO?" boat until the first of this year when people on LinkedIn started contacting me directly wanting to discuss business deals. I am not getting that out of Facebook..only people who want to scam me over on FB. - Scot Duke

Find people with the same interests, hobbies, job, or industry that you are in among your friends' contacts. Or just do a broad search. Then introduce yourself. It's free if you ask a friend to introduce you instead of sending an InMail. - Dread Pirate PJ from NoiseRiver

mostly linkedin is a good way to stay in loose touch with people you meet at events etc. - Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)

it just feels a bit broken - i know there are groups on there now but they all seem pretty spammy in my opinion. - Zee.

I really don't. Most of my networking is hand to hand combat. No need for social networks, etc. It's just too much extra work and not as effective for what I do. - Patricia

I see LinkedIn as a more "passive" social network. I collect contacts from people I've met and worked with, and try to stay in touch with most of them. However, the most use has been through other people contacting me with it. I've landed a few contracts and met some interesting people that way. - Ryan Twomey

1. Up-to-date contacts (phone, email). 2. Reconnecting with colleagues, former employees, etc. - John Craft

I'm on it. I don't use it actively. More as a way to keep contacts of business professionals that I know. - Jason Shultz from twhirl

@ryan, yes i use it passively to, kind of afraid to take the leap and start networking there, my boss is in Linkedin and I feel that my activity could raise questions - matiasjajaja

I added some contacts and that was it! - Joe Dawson

I use it for hiring and tracking contact information. Occasionally I get an inbound bizdev request. - Jess Lee

Really not much other than adding contacts, once in long while. Facebook gave us more networking opportunities than linkedin. Perhaps due to the nature of our business and target groups. - Jonathan Kong

@matiasjajaja - I wonder about that for LinkedIn...if I start to use it for networking a new job and I have kept my current colleagues and maybe superiors, wouldn't they notice and see me connecting with recruiters, etc? Or do we rely on 'security via obscurity' so to speak, since although others can see your new connections, they don't really know what the core gist of those connections are? (kind of hard if a lot of your new connections work for recruiting companies!) - Steve just Steve

I use LI to keep in touch with old friends, and to track students who graduate from the MSIS program that I help run at my university. - Bill Sodeman

I use it as a area to hold my contact info and work experience. I use it to connect to people I know through the course of work (employees, employers, co-workers) and make connections that I see as having potential professional value. I also use it to store my resume and distribute that information. - Aram Zucker-Scharff

I use it as a memory Rolodex. Hard to look through a stack of business cards when you need to remember who someone is or where they worked. - Jen

Awesome... And no more wrist twitching cheating action... - Mathieu Ayel

This brings me memories from my school days. - Kol Tregaskes

my thumb can bend back (I can make an L shape with my thumb), I'd be banned from the pro circuit on evolutionary grounds! - alphaxion

When they bring in the Steel Cage Match, then I want two..one for each hand..lol. - Scot Duke

Haha @ Scot, ever thought of Triple Threat Deathmatches? XD - ElijahBailey-Zu of FF <0,

Never ever ever stay quiet in a meeting. Always ask a question and contribute at least one comment. - Carla Thompson

Who you know gets you into a door sooner than what you know… after you're in, it's what you know though. - Vincent van Wylick

Volunteer first - that way you get to do what you want to do, not what's left over. - Chrimmus Tad

grow first, monetize second. - Nicholas Cifuentes

wow Nicholas, i completely disagree with that one...and i think think the next couple of years are likely to prove that as one of the worst pieces of business advice. - Zee.

it's only a tiny percentage of companies that grow first / monetize later works for. eBay is one, but it was built at a time when there were few alternatives. - Vincent van Wylick

Cover. Your. Ass. (hate to be cynical, but I haven't had that many good business experiences - as a worker). - Christine Cavalier

Be willing to walk away from the table. I have tons of tips on my blog: www.dailypatricia.com about this - all from what I've learned from others, my own experiences, etc. - Patricia

Best advice--Retire Early and then go start a business. - Scot Duke

passion + innovation + courage + perseverance = PICP = success - Hayk H.

best advice from my first ever CEO was "don't just follow advices" - always listen, always learn from others, but make sure to take your own decisions those who fits you - Naor Mark

i'm assuming you didn't take his advice then Naor - Zee.

have a good Partner, I found it really tough without one. Take time to find the right fit. When hiring staff, try not to throw warm bodies at the problem. I needed to learn how to wear *fewer* hats. - Marko Bon from fftogo

what's it like having Trish? get much use out of it? how do u use it? - Zee.

I used too. Now I have a Grandcentral one, though. - Carlos Granier-Phelps

I like it, I use it for business. It works just like a regular phone number, except you use it through your computer with a headset. I have it set up to receive voice mail from customers and it notifies me with a pop-up when a call comes in or I have a msg. - Trish R

awesome Trish - so it actually works efficiently? - Zee.

Also, I like it because I can access it anywhere, meaning I can use it with my laptop anywhere. - Trish R

I have one but don't use it much now that I don't travel. There's a "Skype to go" feature you can use to make local calls when you travel internationally. That was very handy. - Fa La La La Lindsay

Yes. I have two. A US one, and a UK one. I also pay $9.95 a month for world unlimited, which includes skype to go, which is really cool. I have cellphone service with Alltel, and put my Skype to go # in My Circle. Then I can call landlines in 36 countries worldwide for no extra charge. It's fun to call people in the UK, in the winter, when it's 75 here in the south, and I'm on the beach, and they're freezing their nuts off. - Ian May

Nope. No need at all. - Rochelle

Yes, it's very efficient, because you don't spend time calling in to get messages or checking voicemail, it's right there on your computer. I've never had a problem with the quality of the sound, either, works just as or more efficiently than a land line. - Trish R

Nope - Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah

yep - nice to maintain a London number, too. Some people do not even know I have moved away :) - Alexander Kohlhofer

The only drawback that I've seen is that it doesn't have Caller ID so anyone who doesn't answer unknown numbers would not recognize your call and answer it. However, I use mine mainly to receive calls and for voicemail, so that's not a problem for me. - Trish R

My job assigned me one for when the bossman travels, but other than that, I never really use it. - Derrick

yes used to have 2 of them.. - Naor Mark

crikey i'm late to the party... - Zee.

just gotta pimp number too ending in 1111 :D - Zee.

it much easier for customers to call local numbers than making an international call.. so.. sometimes it's a must - Naor Mark

Do you have to pay to get one? - Amir

I have four: Bay Area, Australia, Hong Kong and UK. - dkb

Yes, Amir, it's a paid service, but it's not much. Isn't it $3 or $4 a month? I'm not sure. - Trish R

Oh cool. I might as well go buy one ;) - Amir

We don't have a landline here. Don't need one. However, as I work at home, I need to separate work from down time. Grand central routes business group calls to my desk (which has Skype). Family and friends get routed to the Magic Jack, which is connected to the house cordless phone system. I use GC for all voicemail. Skype also forwards those business calls to my cellphone. So I give out one number the (GC one) and get all my calls exactly where *I* want them, and no rip-off AT&T landline bill. - Ian May

that's really cool guys - i've learnt a lot, thanks a bunch for your help - Zee.

no. it sucks on vista - Patricia

My cell phone is not local to where I live, so Skype-in has allowed me to give out a local number. The problem that I have, is that my router gives priority to two PS2's, in my house, and well, I've almost given up using it for more than voicemail, now. I've about given up on holding a conversation.. I have a new machine, now, and I haven't yet downloaded Skype, to it. Now, reading comments, here, I'm extra concerned about Vista.. as if the new problem I have with Vista isn't enough. Great thread. - Heidi Jeffers Thibodeau

I liked the idea that I could hunt through many available numbers to choose one that "worked" for me. - Heidi Jeffers Thibodeau

Perhaps the 'sophisticate' feeling? - Vijayendra (V-Mo) Mohanty

You have to pay for sites? Tsch. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

I thought there was some service that some people signed up that did this for them? Social...something maybe - Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah

if anyone has any idea pls let me know because this is fucked. - Zee.

Strange! Have you tried asking them about it? - Vishwas Narendra

Jesse stay knows about it..I think it is called SocialToo - Justin Korn

never heard/visited it in my life. - Zee.

and guess what - not even 500...over 900. - Zee.

this is seriously screwed up :s - embee

Someone mentioned SocialToo. Did you join them by any chance? I found this on their signup form: "Are you a Twitter or Identi.ca user? Tell us your Twitter and/or Identi.ca logon credentials and we'll give you a free taste of what's to come by auto-following all those that follow you. (This can be turned off at your discretion)" - Carlos Granier-Phelps

Zee, they are correct - you signed up for SocialToo, which does auto-following for Twitter. Would you like me to disable that for you? You can also go in and disable it yourself - let me know what you'd like me to do. - Jesse Stay

I don't even remember signing up for Social Too but it's possible i did. I DEFINITELY want that disabled - can you let me know if you have if not, i'll do it. Surely the service should auto-follow based on all future follows not all the past ones? - Zee.

Geez, I would hate to think that after a year of Unfollowing worthless Followers I got them back again.. - Scot Duke

Zee, I disabled it for you. My apologies that this caught you by surprise - it would have been ongoing since you signed up, but a bug had it not working for a few users. - Jesse Stay from twhirl

Scot, you're fine if you never signed up for SocialToo - it is meant for people that want to follow those that follow them. And even if you want to control that, there is a blacklist feature that unfollows people and ensures they don't get re-followed by the script. It's meant to make Twitter a better place, not worse. Twitter's native auto-follow doesn't allow blacklisting, which, IMO, is bad for the service. - Jesse Stay from twhirl

Also me only today 20 request...i think that there is too spam and other service as http://www.twitly.com - Dario Salvelli

I just automatically archive all twitter mail in gmail. so it never bothers me. - Zio Bonino

yeah, not a bad idea at all there Kris - Zee.

I am not sure there is any value for anyone to want to advertise on Twitter. I am never on the site since I use TweetDeck...and there are thousands like me who use it so when would they see any of the ads on Twitter? - Scot Duke

Being on Twitter is more powerful than advertising on Twitter. Spamming on Twitter is def not cool but perhaps permission-based advertising would be acceptable in exchange for additional benefits (increased follower limit). I am sure most people would accept ads vs pay for premium. - Ben Watson from twhirl

The real value of Twitter for companies and their customers is that they get instant feedback on their products and vice versa. I just have to say one bad thing about a brand, and I get a rep talking to me about it (from Skype to 37signals). It's like Getsatisfaction, except distributed. Ironically, twitter-search made that happen. - Vincent van Wylick

It will be very hard to find a revenue stream for Twitter. It has a lot of competition, e.g. Plurk. - imabonehead

adsense for twitter. they're testing it in japan, and you see elements of it in the realtime election stuff. - Andrew Badera

the trick to finding a revenue stream without losing the customer base is to find a way to provide service to corporate customers without affecting the user experience for the individual. I'll think more on this. - Zach Landes

license it to the corporate world so they can build their own bespoke implementations as well as a corporate hosting solution - doesn't impact the service they host to users and gives them a solid revenue stream. Maybe look into exchange/sharepoint integration? - alphaxion

chuck in the odd "sponsored tweet". People will kick up a stink for a little while but pownce seems to do it ok. And its the only sensible way to monetize their API. - Anthony Feint

It will either be via consolidating trending topics and selling that off somehow - most likely to search company that wants to incorporate it to their page - also if they can work it just think of the possibility for target marketing. They know what their subscribers talk about --- so it should be easy to send advertising that is on topic. - Wayne Schulz

I haven't the faintest idea how Twitter can make money - I bet they wish they had thought of Yammer, though. But I guess we all know there is a window in time, a sweet spot, where something should and needs to develop out of a product so that it doesn't lose its attractiveness. Twitter seems to have crossed the 'drowning whale - twitter overload' problem that killed it as a serious product. - david

Actually, I just thought of something. A twitter page that is a collection of mini browser windows, all clickable, and the mini windows earn their place on that page in some sort of popularity thing like Digg uses. Oh yes, and how to earn money from it - have a sponsored column of minis down one side of the page. - david

I'm quite concerned that no-one is looking outside of finding ways to crowbar in advertising. Maybe licensing a corporate API to allow an easy way of getting corporate news, press releases and updates out to people. Imagine a system where a hardware manufacturer or software developer uploads a new version of drivers or software and/or a patch and it immediately gets tweeted out. Follow the corporate tweet stream and keep up to date with freshly released items and news. - alphaxion

while it would be in competition with RSS feeds, integration into corporate sites could make it an interesting way of pushing out info to people. Mix things like FF and you can even see a history of comments on it to see if people have problems with it. - alphaxion

Premium access/content is a when, not if, scenario online. - Patricia

@alphaxion there are those of us who are looking at non-advertising revenue models, but we're not going to put them out there. Advertising isn't really working for anyone but Google, and will be very recession-sensitive. - Jason Carreira

@jason, everybody should have known that about advertising long ago and built sites specifically with ancillary revenue baked in. It's a no brainer. - Patricia

@jason I was referring to the suggestions in the thread - got no idea what others outside of the thread are thinking off and I'm sure there has been plenty of suggestions for other means to generate a real revenue stream. I've made a couple in this thread that are real means of monetising the technology. I even submitted them to the twitter feedback system. - alphaxion

I'm saying you're not going to get people contributing innovative revenue models here, 'cause people will just use them instead. - Jason Carreira

Twitter is essentially a communications platform (utility). The web IMO based on what it's designed to do (as a technology itself) will mean sites will either be a utility (communications, ecommerce, etc.) or entertainment (blog/media, TV, games) - given this, communications platforms will probably eventually monetize by charing fees - not just for access to core services but premium... more... - Patricia

the suggestions I made are just generic ones that aren't really innovative - they're pretty much standard software business models, so I had no problem mentioning them ;) I could imagine the more innovative suggestions wouldn't be mentioned here, but I at least expected a few more standard IT business models to be hinted at here. - alphaxion

alphaxion your suggestions in fact are overly generic: twitter is just XMPP. the only thing Twitter has going for it on top of XMPP is its userbase/popularity. thus, advertising. - Andrew Badera

andrew: but the web needs to ditch advertising as a means of generating money because it's a flawed business model. Licensing their software for bespoke deployments and then maybe charging extra for federating the systems to the rest of the twitter network is quite viable in my eyes. Maybe even make the federation charge a subscription model so in order to keep connected to the twitter userbase you have to pay a recurring CAL. Don't want to pay? fine, one off deployment that is internal to your company. - alphaxion

with a yearly support contract as an extra. Constant revenue streams by harnessing your userbase on the free version. Paid version allows bespoke integration that goes further than the public API is possible of. - alphaxion

alphaxion, agreed. people hear "Online ad revenues are XYZ growing" and think that it's enough but it isn't. I think we are a long way away from the problems to make it truly work. - Patricia

patricia: my concerns with the dependance upon ad revenues are that it demands constant growth to keep profits going (so you're limiting your earning potential as the market matures) and the issue that ads soon over take the real content people came for in the first place - look at TV, it's rapidly approaching a 50/50 split between content and ads with people turning away because of it. Advertising should ALWAYS be an afterthought, not your only revenue stream. - alphaxion

alphaxion, brilliant, brilliant point. can you come hang out with me? :) i wish more people were in the market like you. :) i owned a social media company for 3 years + ad revenue was the intended ancillary revenue stream, not the main source - sold it before we got there, but totally agree. Brilliant point! - Patricia

but it's not an easy problem to remedy. It's far easier to say "don't use advertising" than to come up with a solution. :( It's the nettle someone is gonna have to grasp at some point tho, otherwise the net will collapse back to the dialup age when it comes to content and cool things you can do with it! - alphaxion

alphaxion: don't agree that advertising is a flawed business model, a mature market just requires creative marketing innovations. However I do agree that it should be a last resort, especially for a company like Twitter. They'll never monetize with advertising. Think about it-Google search matches advertising with searches. Search for a Garmin nuvi PND and you'll get search results and highly targeted advertising. But Twitter? People are there for personal interaction. They WON'T CLICK! - Justin Davey

@justin, do you own a startup? - Patricia

alphaxion what do you suggest they license? xmpp? fail. I don't disagree that advertising is not a sustainable model, nor am I saying that it _should_ be the primary/only model, but please put more analysis into what you're saying before saying it, it just doesn't make any sense. - Andrew Badera

Justin -- plenty of people use Twitter to seek advice. Contextual advertising has serious potential. Think about the recent Summize purchase. - Andrew Badera

One thing I don't get: why is the twittersphere freely searchable and accessible. The information in those tweets seems like it could well be very valuable and yet twitter is giving anyone who feels like it access to that information for free. - Zach Landes

Just because it's open now, doesn't mean it won't close later. And, the search capabilities are pretty basic right now -- imagine a richer search/reporting/trend researching/numbers crunching interface that allows you to build ad campaigns to match current dominant or rising trends? - Andrew Badera

One thing is for sure: they are not going to close anything off that the masses will use. It will either be premium services for companies and/or adverts for everyone. - Vincent van Wylick