Scripting News: What will we call a Twitter? (Scripting News)
Scott Fox,ECommerceSuccessBlog
· 9 months ago
Hi Dave,
Interesting question. How will the nomenclature evolve as the tools and industry evolve?
Blogs are now a very common noun, but "blog" was not a trademark or a company. (Although "blogger" is, as you pointed out in your tweet that preceded this post.)
We don't call browsers "Mozillas" or "Netscapes" but "Kleenex" is kleenex.
I vote for a "twitter" becoming a common noun that represents a system like Twitter (the company) currently offers. (But the company's trademark counsel probably would differ.)
But what do we call ourselves as users of a twitter?
Twitter-ers? Tweeters? Tweeple?
or just twits...?
Michael
· 9 months ago
Social News Messaging - but for everyone else: Twitter. The name is equal with the form of communication it invented.
Anthony Farrior
· 9 months ago
I guess it's kinda like T.V./Television or The Radio. The action or content becomes the name of the tool. Or maybe it's the opposite, where the original name for the tool now becomes the name for the action independent from the original tool...*spins finger in circle*
jonathan
· 9 months ago
I think a new name is still possible, mainly since the category is still so amorphous, but also since (a) most of the 'trained' users are still on Facebook and they don't have a verb for what they do there yet (Facebooking?) and (b) even the Twitter verb is still confusing, since it's seemingly both the verb AND the noun.
And the verb is what matters.
I'd suggest something that plays off the concept of "status," again, because the vast majority of users are on Facebook.
How about "to stat"? making the person who does it a "statter? And the individual unit a "stat." And the feed a "statfeed."
To wit: "I statted my location." "She statted her pictures." "He statted a link to his latest post."
At its inception, a tweet was a SMS message. "Short Message Server" doesn't sound nearly as daunting as "micro-blogging server" and it avoids any kleenex-like trademark issues. But until there is an interchange/transport protocol to go along with it, are they really anything more than fancy web guestbooks from 1994?
dave
· 9 months ago
Yeah but what are people really going to call it. I don't think they're going to care about "trademark issues" nor do they have to. Normal people get to call things whatever they want to call them.
kawika
· 9 months ago
Xerox, despite trademark lawyer's best efforts, is still a common noun and verb to most people. I don't see any reason why "Twitter" and "twitter" won't also live side by side, especially with "tweeters" "tweeting" their "tweets." The nicknames may too clear, clever and concise to be replaced with something less so.
Rex Hammock
· 9 months ago
Didn't Google flop w/ jaiku. And isn't Facebook's status update a twitter-like feature? I would venture to guess that if one considered FB "status updates" as a stand-alone service that is Twitter-like, it has more users and activity that Twitter. The problem for FB, Google and others, however, is all of the third party services that have been built on top of Twitter -- or maybe that's an opportunity -- I've given up trying to figure this one out. Gee, it sure would be nice if all this stuff worked together. I can't keep up with all of my 140 character thoughts.
dave
· 9 months ago
I love home.smallpicture.com and it's only been up for a couple of days. It's totally clear that Leo's twitter-like system is a winner.
And you could have made the same argument before blogs. My time is already filled surfing all the sites that Yahoo finds, I don't have time to visit your personal website.
I am absolutely sure that there is value in "fractional horsepower" twitter-like systems.
But that isn't the subject of this post, I'm asking you to *assume* that there will be at least some. What will they be called?
Rex Hammock
· 9 months ago
Oh, yeah. On the bigger question. What to call twitter-like services? I don't think of what I do on Twitter as being either micro or blogging. It's short, yes, but micro? I try to post complete thoughts, not just fragments of them. And it's not really a "web log" or any kind of log for that matter (however, they have permalinks, RSS feeds and are reverse chronological.) I think I've seen the word "relay" used in describing twitter-like services -- as in a message relay service? Something that will send a short message to a server that then relays it to whomever subscribes?
Scobleizer
· 9 months ago
I want my own Twitter. Dave: how much would you charge to build me one?
Just pick one, Robert, and I'll bet you could get a ton of folks to chip in. You have an engine preference? Laconica? Jaiku?
ankushnarula
· 9 months ago
SSM - social short message WSM - web short message
shokk
· 9 months ago
too long. I "messaged" you. Simple.
Jeff Schiller
· 9 months ago
What's wrong with 'microblog' itself?
Mew-blog?
PXLated
· 9 months ago
Twitter = Kleenex, too late. ---------- The name is the same, the function is different for everyone though. For some it's microblogging, others it's mass instant messaging or 50 other things.
Jonas
· 9 months ago
Google's got Jaiku. Not that it's evident but it's theirs.
Kawika Holbrook
· 9 months ago
Xerox comes to mind: A trademark that, despite being fought for by its owners, has also become a generic noun and verb in common usage. "Twitter" and "twitter" can co-exist, I think, as tweeters continue to tweet. (Just look out for "spit," or spam in Twitter.)
dj chang
· 9 months ago
good observation. twitter has become coke, kleenex, xerox.
That also says any other public, i.e. non-enterprise, service would have a hard time competing - including Google or Yahoo.
Greg K Nicholson
· 9 months ago
(Slightly unrelated:) in the UK, almost no-one uses “xerox”—and I suspect very few people know what it means—because “photocopier” has a transparent meaning.
@osmarjardim
· 9 months ago
Now I have a clear idea of what you mean, dear Dave Winer, webblog pioneer. The one that invents a technology usually names it. Too witt folks came out first with what they named "twitter". Probably in near future microbloging will be referred to as "twitter".
dave
· 9 months ago
That's what I think too.
Jordi Soler
· 9 months ago
Just a quick reminder: if you want to build your Twitter-like community the easiest way (Twitter "for dummies"?) is to set up a blog in wordpress.com and use the Prologue or the P2 theme. They're made for that. No need to use code.
Hil
· 9 months ago
How about a chirper? Chorus, choir or trumpeter could also work, depending on how important one felt. Though I am inclined to think twitter is already too far embedded, and that that name will just be adapted.
interstar
· 9 months ago
We (at least in the UK) still talk about hoovers and biros.
shokk
· 9 months ago
This just feels like something you hope self-fulfills. I don't see or hear anyone calling Facebook's new layout a Twitter. I think at this point everyone knows Twitter is a specific thing.
But now is the time to set that name in stone forever. Since you're consciously trying to shoot for that, make it count. Will it be a "tweet"? Or a DM? Or just plain "message"? How is it different from what we did with IM? Maybe I just "pinged" you.
shokk
· 9 months ago
And remember that it's not about the service itself, but the content. A site with an awesome project or product to talk about will attract people to talk about it on the site, whether it is structured bulletin-board based discussions or a twitter-like flow. First and foremost, you should consider what content you want to present, and whether it is worth anyone's time.
kosso
· 9 months ago
As you know, I'm constantly trying to think of names and words for things. I'm planning a simplified stripped-down version of Phreadz (which I long-windedly call a 'social multimedia networking forum') and I still haven't come up with a 'word' for it. I kind of wish I could eradicate the word Twitter from my thought processes and come up with a simple word, with vowels included (shock!) and an available .com domain.
It's hard! Trying to come up with something which represents a means to publish multimedia, share multimedia and have 'conversations' through multimedia using any platform (or medium) out there with an api to plug in to (bi-directional if possible).
I suppose it could just be *any* word. Then, if enough people use the service and talk/tweet/blog/etc about it then it becomes *the* word of 'it', whatever 'it' is ;)
sigh. we shall see.....
kosso
· 9 months ago
"blims" : blog-like interactive media streams ;)
Michael
· 9 months ago
Yep, thats it: twitter _is_ easy. People changed the interpretation from Twitter = service, to twitter = social short messaging (or snm, social news messaging). After that the huge amount of them don't think about it, they just use it that way cause it's the social construct that most people agree on - and: it's simple ;-)
The only chance to change that would be a word that is already common like "i'll text you" ("I'll sms you" is harder to pronounce) and add something specific. For us "twitter" will never be what birds do again (in the first place). But to replace the word with something that people do would be nice ;-)
Because twitter messages always deal with my peer group and news that could be relevant for them "I peer you" or just ""give me a sec I'm peering" could work - it just changes the you = one, into you = many.
Wing Yu
· 9 months ago
What exactly is microblogging?
What happens if I were to write a script that takes a blog entry and automatically divides it into ~140 character chunks and push them out at regular intervals?
What if I string together related twitters (or unrelated incoherent ones) and publish the composite as a single entry? Am I back to blogging?
Khurram
· 9 months ago
Been on twitter for about 3 weeks. I have seen a moderate boost in traffic. Mostly traffic from people just browsing for more followers, but traffic none the less. Next step: learning how to build a stronger network and convert these additional eyeballs in to fans and sales. come check me out.
May I suggest something novel (sorry if it's bad, i m no native english speaker)?
why not call them just 'logs'? it's, like, shorter than 'blogs', and it's accurate, because that's what it actually does. - hey i logged about davewiner's latest article!!! - you crazy little logger - i 'm gonna log my ass off tonight
Hungry Garden
· 9 months ago
Hi Dave:
I don't think we can go with twitter per copyright
I'd like to suggest "octavo messages" based on Shirky, No really, seriously, if you think about it a minute. It sounds great, its short. It has a related interpretation. And, no one knows what the hell it means so its easy to "bend" its meaning to new interpretation. Hell, they'll think your talking about music which is always cool to seem artsy.
From Shirky (which you got to admit is one way cool name too.)
"During the wrenching transition to print, experiments were only revealed in retrospect to be turning points. Aldus Manutius, the Venetian printer and publisher, invented the smaller octavo volume along with italic type. What seemed like a minor change — take a book and shrink it — was in retrospect a key innovation in the democratization of the printed word, as books became cheaper, more portable, and therefore more desirable, expanding the market for all publishers, which heightened the value of literacy still further."
Octavo seems apropo. Its the kind of word that most people don't know what it means (at least I didn't) but they think they do. But, when they look it up they say "Of course, I knew that, it means little"
keep keeping 'em honest
Hungry Garden
· 9 months ago
Hi Dave:
I don't think we can go with twitter per copyright
I'd like to suggest "octavo messages" based on Shirky, No really, seriously, if you think about it a minute. It sounds great, its short. It has a related interpretation. And, no one knows what the hell it means so its easy to "bend" its meaning to new interpretation. Hell, they'll think your talking about music which is always cool to seem artsy.
From Shirky (which you got to admit is one way cool name too.)
"During the wrenching transition to print, experiments were only revealed in retrospect to be turning points. Aldus Manutius, the Venetian printer and publisher, invented the smaller octavo volume along with italic type. What seemed like a minor change — take a book and shrink it — was in retrospect a key innovation in the democratization of the printed word, as books became cheaper, more portable, and therefore more desirable, expanding the market for all publishers, which heightened the value of literacy still further."
Octavo seems apropo. Its the kind of word that most people don't know what it means (at least I didn't) but they think they do. But, when they look it up they say "Of course, I knew that, it means little"
keep keeping 'em honest
adam
· 9 months ago
What about a bloop? "Hold on a sec I need to make a bloop" or what that be take a bloop ?
enamu
· 9 months ago
I don't feel right about the term "microblogging" because twitter is more like IM than a blog. I'd like to call twitter-like services... hmm... OM: Open Messenger. =)
Ethan Gahng
· 9 months ago
How does "status broadcasting" sound? The thing about "Microblogging" is that these things are not used for the same purpose as blogs, and it will give a wrong impression to the mainstream users. But I already have a bad feeling that Twitter may become the next kleenex. However it would be really awesome to see grass-roots approaches like yours and Leo's succeed in stopping that from happening, since that is where it's supposed to go.
RiledUp
· 9 months ago
I also don't know what's wrong with with microblogging.
The BBC has gone with “…the mini-blog website Twitter…”. http://ur1.ca/2nvu Seems like a sensible description, though I'd use “service” instead of “website”.
Biju
· 4 months ago
Twitter became a phenomenon in front of our eyes within such a short time.. techies soon realized the potential of twitter not only as a social networking tool, but as a powerful tool for search engine optimization..It has provoked curiosity among people who did not quite follow what twittering is about.. rarely does a phenomenon cover all aspects of people such as this: the techies and the non techies.. i am interested to see what twittering will do in the next few years to teh social networking at large..
All Comments
Interesting question. How will the nomenclature evolve as the tools and industry evolve?
Blogs are now a very common noun, but "blog" was not a trademark or a company. (Although "blogger" is, as you pointed out in your tweet that preceded this post.)
We don't call browsers "Mozillas" or "Netscapes" but "Kleenex" is kleenex.
I vote for a "twitter" becoming a common noun that represents a system like Twitter (the company) currently offers. (But the company's trademark counsel probably would differ.)
But what do we call ourselves as users of a twitter?
Twitter-ers? Tweeters? Tweeple?
or just twits...?
And the verb is what matters.
I'd suggest something that plays off the concept of "status," again, because the vast majority of users are on Facebook.
How about "to stat"? making the person who does it a "statter? And the individual unit a "stat." And the feed a "statfeed."
To wit: "I statted my location." "She statted her pictures." "He statted a link to his latest post."
And you could have made the same argument before blogs. My time is already filled surfing all the sites that Yahoo finds, I don't have time to visit your personal website.
I am absolutely sure that there is value in "fractional horsepower" twitter-like systems.
But that isn't the subject of this post, I'm asking you to *assume* that there will be at least some. What will they be called?
I already wrote about scoble.smallpicture.com on the feature request list.
And nakedjen.smallpicture.com.
I want to see what you guys do with it.
I bet it'll be crazy! (In a nice way.)
http://code.google.com/p/jaikuengine/
WSM - web short message
Mew-blog?
----------
The name is the same, the function is different for everyone though. For some it's microblogging, others it's mass instant messaging or 50 other things.
That also says any other public, i.e. non-enterprise, service would have a hard time competing - including Google or Yahoo.
But now is the time to set that name in stone forever. Since you're consciously trying to shoot for that, make it count. Will it be a "tweet"? Or a DM? Or just plain "message"? How is it different from what we did with IM? Maybe I just "pinged" you.
It's hard! Trying to come up with something which represents a means to publish multimedia, share multimedia and have 'conversations' through multimedia using any platform (or medium) out there with an api to plug in to (bi-directional if possible).
I suppose it could just be *any* word. Then, if enough people use the service and talk/tweet/blog/etc about it then it becomes *the* word of 'it', whatever 'it' is ;)
sigh. we shall see.....
The only chance to change that would be a word that is already common like "i'll text you" ("I'll sms you" is harder to pronounce) and add something specific. For us "twitter" will never be what birds do again (in the first place). But to replace the word with something that people do would be nice ;-)
Because twitter messages always deal with my peer group and news that could be relevant for them "I peer you" or just ""give me a sec I'm peering" could work - it just changes the you = one, into you = many.
What happens if I were to write a script that takes a blog entry and automatically divides it into ~140 character chunks and push them out at regular intervals?
What if I string together related twitters (or unrelated incoherent ones) and publish the composite as a single entry? Am I back to blogging?
http://twitter.com/spryka
why not call them just 'logs'? it's, like, shorter than 'blogs', and it's accurate, because that's what it actually does.
- hey i logged about davewiner's latest article!!!
- you crazy little logger
- i 'm gonna log my ass off tonight
I don't think we can go with twitter per copyright
In reading Clay Shirky' Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable, just a bit into it and its good
http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2009/03/newspapers...
I'd like to suggest "octavo messages" based on Shirky, No really, seriously, if you think about it a minute. It sounds great, its short. It has a related interpretation. And, no one knows what the hell it means so its easy to "bend" its meaning to new interpretation. Hell, they'll think your talking about music which is always cool to seem artsy.
From Shirky (which you got to admit is one way cool name too.)
"During the wrenching transition to print, experiments were only revealed in retrospect to be turning points. Aldus Manutius, the Venetian printer and publisher, invented the smaller octavo volume along with italic type. What seemed like a minor change — take a book and shrink it — was in retrospect a key innovation in the democratization of the printed word, as books became cheaper, more portable, and therefore more desirable, expanding the market for all publishers, which heightened the value of literacy still further."
Octavo seems apropo. Its the kind of word that most people don't know what it means (at least I didn't) but they think they do. But, when they look it up they say "Of course, I knew that, it means little"
keep keeping 'em honest
I don't think we can go with twitter per copyright
In reading Clay Shirky' Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable, just a bit into it and its good
http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2009/03/newspapers...
I'd like to suggest "octavo messages" based on Shirky, No really, seriously, if you think about it a minute. It sounds great, its short. It has a related interpretation. And, no one knows what the hell it means so its easy to "bend" its meaning to new interpretation. Hell, they'll think your talking about music which is always cool to seem artsy.
From Shirky (which you got to admit is one way cool name too.)
"During the wrenching transition to print, experiments were only revealed in retrospect to be turning points. Aldus Manutius, the Venetian printer and publisher, invented the smaller octavo volume along with italic type. What seemed like a minor change — take a book and shrink it — was in retrospect a key innovation in the democratization of the printed word, as books became cheaper, more portable, and therefore more desirable, expanding the market for all publishers, which heightened the value of literacy still further."
Octavo seems apropo. Its the kind of word that most people don't know what it means (at least I didn't) but they think they do. But, when they look it up they say "Of course, I knew that, it means little"
keep keeping 'em honest
"Hold on a sec I need to make a bloop"
or what that be take a bloop ?
A slick twit. Skysend
http://riledup.com