Twitter Stomps on 3rd Party Tool Community (Was it inevitable?)
This week it was revealed that Twitter was going to release its own url shortener. This news comes on the back of Twitter acquiring the iPhone Twitter app Tweetie (along with the company behind it). These two stories together represent Twitter essentially turning its back on the 3rd party tool community that has helped turn Twitter in to the success it is today. After all, can you imagine Twitter without mobile apps and Tweetdeck?
But was this inevitable? Should we all have been so foolish to think this was not going to happen.
I guess it depends on how you look at it. I am sure the owners of Atebits (the maker of Tweetie) have no hard feelings about it - since they are benefiting (to the tune of $ millions).
Twitter in essence made a brilliant business play. They developed a cool new micro-blogging platform and quickly released an extensive API that allowed a myriad of 3rd party developers to create a virtual industry around creating apps that interact with Twitter. Then they just sit back and wait. The community voted with their usage of the best and most wanted apps - and then Twitter can either acquire them, or build it themselves.
From a business perspective this is brilliant, from a 3rd party app developer standpoint - it sucks. There is no way around it. Hundreds of us spent many months, some years, developing software that Twitter can (and did) render irrelevant in a day.
We knew this was coming. So why did I push forward with the development of br.st?
1. Business is a risk, and developing 3rd party tools is always an even bigger risk due to its dependence on the main party's software/business. Getting out of bed in the morning is a risk. You have to take risks.
2. No one knew what direction Twitter was going to go. If they would have taken a different direction it could have benefited us.
3. There was always that possibility they could have chosen br.st to purchase or another company could have purchased br.st.
4. In the still unproven world of social media, it is anyone's guess what business software strategy will work. For example, did anyone think that Facebook would unseat the once king of the hill MySpace.
5. We could afford to take the risk. Brinkster (the parent company), is a long established solid company that could afford to take the risk of spending several months trying its hand at social media.
I feel bad for all the companies and people that based their entire existence around Twitter. My best advice is to try again, keep taking risks. Your idea could be the next Farmville app for Facebook (60+ million) users or it could go the way of Friendster.
In the end we have focused back on our core compitencies and learned several lessons. And we will keep moving forward...
- Jared (Follow me on Twitter - @JaredStauffer)
Br.st is Giving Away 21 Wii Systems & 4 MacBook Pros
Announcing the Br.st 25 Days of Christmas Giveaway!
Last week we launched br.st. We worked hard to make sure it was the best place to experience Twitter on the net. We did not get the press coverage we anticipated. So, to get the word out we decided instead of buying advertising we would do a giveaway contest and give the money in the form of prizes to our users.
We are giving away 21 Nintendo Wii game systems every day (except Fridays) from December 1st through December 24th. AND we are giving away 4 MacBook Pros (13 inch) every Friday in December.
It is pretty simple to enter: login to br.st, click the Wii or MacBook button on the right sidebar, submit the tweet, and you are entered! You can enter each giveaway up to five (5) times per day. And you have to re-enter the contest every day for the Nintendo Wii and every week for the MacBook Pro.
Read the main giveaway page, the FAQs, and the rules. Here's to hoping you win!
My first experience running Google Chrome OS
I came across a tweet that talked about running the new Google Chrome OS in a virtual machine. Since I was intrigued and excited from the video demos yesterday I decided to install it and give it a try. After a few hiccups I had it up and running. I followed this guide to get it running. To install is you can go here to get the downloads you will need.
A few first observations and then the screenshots are below.
- The OS does indeed load in less than 7 seconds.
- You login to it with an @gmail.com user name and password.
- Once it loads you are pretty much in/using the Chrome web browser.
- If you turn it off and then turn it back on you come back to the exact same "spot" you were when you shut it down.
- Because of the fast startup time it reminds me of using my iPhone.
- It appears you can do with/on Chrome OS pretty much anything you can do through the Chrome web browser on a PC.
Google Chrome OS Unveiled and Why This is Good News
In a press conference today Google released what they are calling the new Google Chrome OS (Operating System). Basically everything, all program you might want to run, all live within the Chrome web browser. This is good and bad. Google says this is good because you don't have to worry about all those annoying software updates you have to do with Windows and Mac OS. I say it is bad or different because although there are some awesome websites on the web, it still does not 100% compare to my desktop experience.
A few cool things about Chrome OS:
- It is supposed to take 7 seconds or less to load it up (from power button to typing in your login info).
- Simple Look and Feel - with tabs along top and everything done in a web browser format.
- No updating software, since it all runs from the Internet (and updates automatically).
- Ease of use (in theory) - there are these new things called "in place panels" that let you use things like instant message clients easily from small popup windows on the bottom of your screen.
My Take
A recurring theme you will hear from me is competition is always good - and this is the same in this case. Google coming out with an OS only drives Microsoft and Apple to improve their own OS's. If there was no competition there would be little motivation for Microsoft to fix problems and innovate (other than trying to minimize the myriad of complaints and nullify those now annoying PC vs. Mac commercials).
Another reason this is good is that variety of choice is a good thing. Your work desktop may work best with Windows, but your notebook computer for on the road use may work better on Chrome OS. I know that some people like having a Windows PC, Windows CE on their phone, Windows Media Computer, and XBox - and there is something to be said for continuity. However, I enjoy having a Windows PC at work, my Apple iPhone, AppleTV, etc. I believe in continuity in groups when it works well, like iPods for music, iTunes, and AppleTV all working together. I think you get my point.
Read Google's Official Blog with the announcement and what Mashable, TechCrunch, and Electronista had to say about it.
Chrome OS Videos
Here are some good videos about the new Chrome OS, starting with the most basic and easy to understand and progressing to the more technical.
Rent Movies on SD Cards??
Blockbuster, in an attempt to win back market share, is test marketing renting movies on SD cards. What? or more importantly, Why?
Where do I start with this one? First, I already have enough trouble trying to find the DVD that we rented for the kids, making that the size of a quarter is not going to help me. Second, I can't remember the last time I thought - I wish I could get this movie on an SD card so I can play it on my PSP... Third, how is this any better than stopping at Walgreens and renting a DVD for $1 from RedBox?
No thanks, I will stick with renting movies on my AppleTV, where I hate the 24 hr viewing limit and $4 per movie rental seems high, but you can't beat the convenience of it!
Why the New Droid Phone is Good for iPhone Users
When the iPhone came out several years ago it turned the cell phone market upside down. There was nothing that compared to it, nothing that even came close. We all celebrated, paid way to much for the first version, and never looked back... until we realized that AT&T's network sucks.
Then in the summer of 2009 we got the Palm Pre. The announcements of the Pre had some interesting and cool features that the iPhone was missing, but to this point it has not proven to be strong competition for the iPhone.
Along comes C3PO, err, I mean, the Droid phone, and its very cool Transformer commercials. With the financial and innovative muscle behind Google, and Motorola's desire to relive the glory days of the RAZR, we finally have a partnership worthy of competing with Apple.
The Droid phone is good news for iPhone users because it will finally provide real competition for the iPhone. Real competition means that things that really annoy us about the iPhone (camera, slow app store approvals, AT&T's network, not having 3GS functionality) will get fixed in sooner rather than later.
Now don't get too excited, the first version of the Droid will be, well, the first version. It will have its issues and it will probably not be until version 2 that it will really compare to the iPhone.
So hang in there, hopefully we will be able to switch to Verizon soon.