Twitter is huge, and is only getting bigger. They’re expanding their API’s and making a bigger dent in the Internet than anybody could have predicted back in its infancy, in the year of 2006. But how big could it get, and should you embrace it?
You might be asking yourself just how this relates to web development… Well, aforementioned APIs allow you to integrate the Twitter social network in any applications, web-or-otherwise, that you create, with ease.
Lots of developers are jumping in head-first and making alternative Twitter web applications, or just creative uses of the service, such as a collection of micro movie reviews. It’s an addictive, ever-growing service, and it’s really making its rounds around the ‘net…
New Features
If you used to follow Twitter news, but have recently gotten out of the loop, allow me to fill you in… They’ve implemented some pretty ingenious user-requested features (as most Twitter features are) that could help you decide whether to start using it in your apps.
First off, we’ve got retweets. Long-implemented in unofficial 3rd-party apps, retweets allow you to share information with your followers. Users of the Twitter.com web interface had to copy and paste the tweet they wanted to share in the following format…
RT @username useful tweet
Lots of Twitter apps have been automating this for a while now, and it’s been a very widely used feature.
Well, the folks over at Twitter saw the potential, and implemented this feature as an official API. Now the Twitter.com website bares a “retweet” button on every tweet. The functionality is a bit different, but I won’t get into that here.
Lots of third party apps have already integrated the official Retweet feature, and it’s growing in use pretty quickly.
Another new feature is “Lists.” Lists allow you to make… Well, lists, of Twitter users, and give the list a name to categorize their tweets. You could have a “Developer” list, and put all of the people you follow that are developers in that list, so you can go there to see their tweets on one page.
This is also a new public API, and has been integrated widely.
Aside from the big features, there’s also Geocaching, which allows you to put a location-stamp on your tweets. This doesn’t take up your precious characters, but allows users to see your location, making Twitter the #1 social network for stalkers.
Growth
I don’t see Twitter’s growth stopping any time soon. It’s a convenient way to share information and converse, and we could always use some more applications to access it. Everyone’s using Twitter; even NASA. With such an immensely huge and constantly growing audience, I feel that there’s no better time to hop on the bandwagon.
One Comment on "The Twitter Effect"
i always update my Twitter and i love to twitter my daily activities to my friends and loved ones. i also maintain a personal blog for entries which requires more detail.