Twitter Worth a Billion in a Year? hmm more like Jaiku

Link : How Twitter Could Be Worth A Billion In A Year



Recently there have been some interesting conversations going on around the web about the possibilities of what Twitter could become.

Well after reading it I thought compelled to share some thoughts on this subject. First Nate's whole premise is off kilter because it is defendant on Twitter's ability to overcome it's recent scaling issues and loss of it's of respect from the community.

Nate's main point was to use Twitter as a micropayment service. Here is where I think Jaiku (cough cough Google) has the advantage. Google Checkout has already been playing around in the mobile arena for the past year. Now this alone should not be news worthy but I came across an interesting post about Jaiku founder Jyri Engestrom.

"

• Verbs for social objects: we need to think about the verbs that people perform on objects. E.g., Flickr’s aggregation of what people have done with your photos. We should be surfacing the available actions.
• World of Warcraft's information methods for everyday life: “Imagine a physical world where we have as much peripheral information at our disposal as in WoW.” Not just “boring update feeds.” Innovate, especially on mobiles. We will see this stuff in the next 24 months. Some examples: Maps: Where my friends are. Phonebook: what are people up to. Email: prioritized. Photos: Face recognition.
• A new take on social search: Detecting nodal points: “What should I be aware of that’s happening around me? Was what just happened significant to someone on the network.” And then deliver it to people at just the right time, perhaps via push. “Discovery is becoming social.” “It is the end of the era of search,” i.e., of querying for stuff. From browser to search to share (citing former ceo of paypal). From pagerank to “facerank” where what counts is friends in common, physical proximity, shared taste, shared objects."

Google has been very quietly getting ready to open a big ole can of whoop ass directed at Twitter. Remember Google could have bought Twitter but why didn't they?? Because they saw the potential in Jaiku as something much bigger than a micropayment service. Imagine and interconnected stream through this new service that incorporates email / video / maps / shopping etc.. on a platform that is truly stable and scaleable and monetizeable.

All of this running on Android equipped phones and piercing through all of the open social partner sites as well.. It's just a matter of time.

The Answer to the Super Delegate Fiasco

First let me divulge I am a full fledged Obama Supporter. After the results of Super Tuesday have come and gone there has been a lot of discussions about the role of "Super Delegates" determining our next president. This scenario described by a Obama memo would have a virtual tie at the end of the primary schedule and would leave it up to these "Super Delegates".. : 0 a disastorous scenario already being discussed by Howard Dean.

After watching Dan Abrams show last night interviewing Congressmen Adam Smith(Washington) an Obama supporter and a "Super Delegate" the congressman acknowledged this as a flawed process and recommended an across the board agreement that whoever is leading via pledged delegates i.e the delegates awarded for actual voters should be awarded the super delegates. Now I do see some wiggle room as far as following State or Congressional district etc.. but the problem w/ that is there are numerous Super Delegates that hold no constituency relationship.

In my mind the Obama camp should press this issue and come out across the board w/ all of there Super Delegates and embrace this scenario...It would put the Clinton's on the defensive and in a position to look extremely selfish if not accepted...being that President Clinton is also a Super Delegate.

Check out this clip and let me know what you think..

Belated Christmas Thank You to Putnam's

During the Christmas break my wife was doing some last minute shopping for some close friends of ours... Our friends love to ski but haven't been able to afford some much needed equipment. My wife has been a loyal customer of Putnam's Ski and Snowboard shop in North Hampton NH for years and decided to talk to the sales guy she always deals w/ to see if she could barter some of her time working to be able to get some equipment for our friends and their children. They said cool .. and was told to have our friends come on down to get fitted.. to my wife's surprise the owner of Putnam's was made aware of this and quietly and and very humbly took care of that whole family w/ no strings attached.. That was just one of the tiny little gifts that was bestowed upon us this Holiday season..

I wonder if e-commerce will ever be able to match the level of personal engagement that a strong brick and mortar store can create by achieving extraordinary customer service like Putnam's.


Brian you will have customers for life!

Cisco ... Isn't this what Twitter does?

The Human Network: Hollywood


Saw this commercial and the first thing I thought of was.. hey Cisco bought Twitter cool!! I wonder how many people fall for this stuff...

Social Media on the Rise for 08 Election?

Digg - Digg The Candidates



Really interesting stuff today via Digg...not sure how long it has been up and running but I really like the social implications and I think can be a good measurement tool for Gen X - Y.

Seems like Obama and Paul have wide reaching base ... lets see how it pans out over the next month or so. Especially after seeing today latest Reuters/Zogby Poll.

Can Google Juice get Obama Elected?

Google Public Policy Blog: Candidates at Google: Barack Obama

Interesting stuff today.. wondering if this interesting and quite proactive plan will get the tech community and more importantly Google to back Sen. Obama. I was very intrigued about his "transparency" comment regarding the government and opening up to America... It seems like this kind of came out of left field. It will be very interesting to see how the next month or so shapes up.


"I’ll put government data online in universally accessible formats. I’ll let citizens track federal grants, contracts, earmarks, and lobbyist contacts. I’ll let you participate in government forums, ask questions in real time, offer suggestions that will be reviewed before decisions are made, and let you comment on legislation before it is signed. And to ensure that every government agency is meeting 21st century standards, I’ll appoint the nation’s first Chief Technology Officer."

Get Satisfaction... For Real!

A couple of moths ago I heard about this company called "Get Satisfaction" basically a help desk on Steroids.. I mean this in a good way.. If your company is about transparency and really want to engage w/ your customers in a fresh and empowering way this is your solution.

I posted a question to the "Management Team at Me.dium.com" regarding the site relevancy that you see when surfing. Withing 4 hours I got a response and now they have actually made changes brought on by the conversation..


The site itself is really slick and clean to use.. It looks like Major companies are jumping on board as well. I think we will be setting up a profile for yOparts as well.