Bwana.org » im

Twitter 2008: Get Used To It (Goodbye IM/Track)

Bwana — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 15:16:13 +0000

Last month, I blogged my return to Twitter due to the fact that the Track feature was dead. I saw the responses Twitter gave Steve Gillmor at Bearhug camp and determined they were prolonging the obvious: Track is dead, and they’re not bringing it back.

Yesterday, I learned that Twitter has officially gone on record to say that their Instant Messaging (IM) feature is not coming back. (in so many words):

To summarize, we want to bring IM back. We intend to bring IM back. But we’ve officially moved it from our Things That are Broken list to our Things We Want to Build list. Based on our analysis, the cost-to-benefit for IM for the most users is not as high as some other things—so it will be a while before we tackle it. Like any budget (in this case, the budget of our limited engineering time), tough calls need to be made—especially in these times. And while we don’t expect everyone to agree with this decision, we at least want to be straightforward with you.

Translation: Don’t count on IM coming back, ever. Steve Gillmor doesn’t sound surprised by the announcement since I believe he shares the same pessimism with me regarding IM/Track at Twitter. ReadWriteWeb thinks IM will possibly be back next spring. I believe that’s a very optimistic view.

If you must have IM/Track functionality, there are a couple of options available:

Follow TweetTrak and send direct messages on terms you want to track. It will send you responses via direct message.
TwitterSpy is a popular option (I use IdentiSpy for tracking on identi.ca). It is an XMPP jabber bot with lots of features.

Twitter’s stance on IM re-emphasizes my goal of rediscovering how to best utilize Twitter. Since my return, I’ve been using TweetDeck and TwitterSpy with some success. This is my current method of utilizing Twitter:

TweetDeck to do non-realtime tracking of terms using their search feature. I also use TweetDeck to track replies, and keywords related to my websites and me.
TwitterSpy for some interests such as mobile phone news, Apple, web 2.0 topics
Twinkle on my iPhone for mobile Twittering
Twitter through Ping.FM for general blast messages

I’m still clinging to Track by using TwitterSpy, but I find it to be more reliable than TweetDeck’s search implementation. Once TweetDeck becomes more reliable, I can get away from using IM completely.

So this is the new Twitter folks. I say we start getting used to it, adapt, and adjust.

After 4 Months, Has Twitter Improved?

Bwana — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 15:56:55 +0000

It’s still not common knowledge among my online friends that I left Twitter on June 06, 2008. It’s been about 4 months since I did, and it seems like a lot has changed. Twitter is receiving praise for their improved “uptime” over the past months. Some have gone on record to state this could be the end of the “fail whale”. I have a problem with this conclusion. When a service is not working, it’s not up.

Period.

Twitter has had issues with their XMPP Instant Messaging (IM) feature and their Track feature. I went on record to state that these features were my primary way to use Twitter. Guess what? Twitter IM and Track are still not working, and it seems like nobody cares. These were two features which made Twitter great in my mind. People seem content with “hacks” such as Summize search (now acquired and called Twitter search) and Twitterspy, which relies on the former. This is not track. This is a hack. I’m not knocking the authors of Twitterspy because I think it’s a great way to get around the lack of track on Twitter. It’s still a hack though.

Know what’s even worse? Twitter is not even acknowledging the return of IM or Track in their latest status blog entries. The last mention of the IM feature was July 7th, 2008, and the last mention of Track was June 13th, 2008:

Track: this service is disabled and will remain offline until it can be reworked

I hope I’m missing something obvious, but I don’t think I am. People like Steve Gillmor believe IM/Track conflicts with the business goals of Twitter and he believes this is why it’s possibly gone forever.

I don’t know the details behind this, but at this point, I don’t care. Either remove the services from your offering or acknowledge your service is not up until IM and Track are working.

When Twitter brings these services back, then I can acknowledge such statements “99.3% uptime”. Until then, I get a bad taste in my mouth when a company says their service is “up” and several features are disabled. Disagree with me? Well, ask Twitter who did they negotiate their Service Level Agreement (SLA) with? How can you boast about uptime with no SLA?

On the flip side, I’m glad to see Twitter getting mainstream coverage, like with CNN. I’m just saddened I can’t use it for anything other than a spamming platform, which I refuse to do. So after 4 months, has Twitter improved? No. Why? Because it’s still down.