140Char

Should Twitter let you post more than 140 characters, include more metadata in tweets, or include embedded images?

Two prominent internet voices, Dave Winer and Robert Scoble have both recently posted their views on how Twitter should improve it’s core product. Dave Winer proposes that using the basis of SMS as a reason for not expanding the core capabilities of the service is wrong, and that Twitter is really SMS 2.0.

Meanwhile Robert Scoble uses the claim Twitter’s web traffic is flat to suggest 14 ways for the service to become more engaging. Number 1 is to remove the 140 character limit and to allow photos and videos in line to ‘communicate something more than the metaphorical equivalent of a grunt.’

The question is whether either of them is right – from a more technical standpoint, I think there’s a valid viewpoint that Twitter could expand the data accompanying a tweet in some way to give more value when it’s referenced by other services.

But I think it’s an incredibly bad idea for Twitter to lose the 140 character limit, and allow inline photos and videos.

For starters, a service already exists for that, called Facebook. Scoble references it as a more entertaining service for that reason, but I wouldn’t agree. Twitter is fun and engaging in creating conversations and quick observations – for both work and pleasure, whereas Facebook is a way to catch up on all the intimate details of your close family and friends.

It also ignores the myriad of ways that people interact with Twitter already – if I want the basic web service on PC or mobile it’s available. If I want greater adaptability, there’s Tweetdeck, Seesmic or many of the other clients. A huge number of clients are available to cater to almost every need – therefore removing the problem of Twitter attempting to do it. Every change made by a major social network is analysed endlessly, and attempting to please everyone results in something which pleases noone.

Increasing the scope of Twitter also infringes on the Twitter ecosystem of third party businesses – embedding images instantly removes the need for the likes of Twitpic, and suddenly increases storage costs for Twitter.

And suddenly you lose a unique network, and instead you have a Facebook also-ran.

So now – I don’t think we should lose the 140 character limit just yet.

Sky News is installing Twitter client Tweetdeck as default software across journalists computers to encourage and integrate social media for newsgathering and reporting, as revealed by Journalism.co.uk.

It will be on all staff computers within a month, and as part of the move, Sky’s ‘Twitter Correspondant’ Ruth Barnett will move to Sky’s Westminster bureau. Since her appointment, around 90 staff have their own Twitter accounts, and the idea is to no longer ‘ghettoise’ it as the role of one person.

Sky already publish a feed from Sky News @SkyNews, and @SkyNewsBreak, which reveals breaking news before it’s even made it onto the main website.
“There aren’t so many users as Facebook, but they are deeply engaged and it can be applied in so many ways,” Executive Producer Julian March told Journalism.co.uk.

What’s interesting is that this is an official announcement and policy for all staff – many organisations are already using Tweetdeck or similar tools on an unofficial basis – usually requested on an individual basis. Certainly many of my colleagues at Absolute Radio have been using Tweetdeck for ages, while I currently use Tweetdeck and Seesmic Desktop together for two different purposes to avoid mistakenly cross-tweeting. Still others I’ve spoken to are using web-based solutions such as Splitweet, removing the need for downloads and installation.

The announcement is also good timing for Tweetdeck, which has just rolled out a new version of its iPhone app, countering some of the publicity around the acquisition of Ping.fm by Seesmic. Official corporate adoption is going to be just one of the measures in the popularity and success of Twitter clients as we enter a period of serious consolidation by the main players.

I may have already written about Twitter lists, but certainly the interest in them hasn’t started to wane yet.

In addition to everyone and their blogging dog creating posts on the lists you really, definitely, absolutely should follow,  Mark Drapeau has an interesting post on O’Reilly Radar, in which he puts forward the idea that Twitter lists are a more organic metric than the number of followers/RTs an individual has.

Meanwhile the two rivals for most comprehensive Twitter client, Tweetdeck and Seesmic, have both revealed the imminent inclusion of list functionality:

‘While we’re not saying exactly how we’re integrating lists just yet – hey, we all need a few secrets! – be happy in the knowledge that we are integrating lists into TweetDeck. And as you would expect, we’re not just planning any old run-of-the mill integration…oh no. We think you’ll find that what we have planned for Lists is going to take your social media experience with TweetDeck to new heights.’ - Tweetdeck blog.

‘OF COURSE Seesmic will have user lists very soon. I have them on my Seesmic Desktop already testing.’ – Seesmic founder @Loic on Twitter.

I’m convinced Twitter lists will remain a highly important change for Twitter, both for users, and for monetisizing the business.

Video microblogging 12seconds has released 12mail, to join the existing 12cast. Neither requires you to have an existing account, and whereas the earlier application would send videos to Twitter, the new app lets you send videos directly to your friends, which has far more potential for communication.

If you don’t have a 3GS you can send a picture and record an audio message on top of that – and either way, it will be direct messaged to all recipients on Twitter, or strangely posted to a user’s wall on Facebook.

The interesting thing is that I tipped the likes of Seesmic and 12Seconds as video microblogging which would grow hugely this year, but that hasn’t really happened. And the reason is I forgot to think about users more than technology – although there are some great people using video microblogging (for example @Documentally), most people are too self-conscious to be constantly updating to camera at the moment (Although the teen users of Ustream and Justin.tv etc might well disagree).

That’s why I love the fact this operates as more of a messaging service between people that know each other – the familiarity allows me to record a quick message when I don’t want to type or I want to share something visual, without worrying that the entire world will see my bad hair day.

One of the things I’ve had on my ‘todo’ list for quite a while was to revisit the various ways to connect my blog and related discussions and comments to the various social networks where they might be happening.

So I’ve now got Disqus running, which means you can log in and post comments via your Twitter and Facebook profiles, or even video comments with Seesmic. It will also hopefully aggregate any discussion taking place on sites including Friendfeed, which is also useful for getting an overview of all the conversations happening.

I’m also playing around with link posting via both Diigo and Delicious, and some other backend tools.

The end result should be a better and far more useful 140char.com for you – and hopefully some better and more efficient ways to share information for me!

Just a quick update that I won’t be online much, if at all, for the next week, so updates might be quiet until my return…

Security North by James Cridland on Flickr (CC Licence)

Funnily enough, searching for a suitable image on Flickr just gave me the above picture by James Cridland, whose blog and Twitter accounts I started reading recently – and the discovery of each was almost entirely unrelated!

Anyway, a good friend and colleague is aiming to supply some guest posts for here and www.thewayoftheweb.net while I’m offline, so you shouldn’t be alone. And as he’s a video expert, hopefully he’ll redress a slight lack of Seesmic, 12seconds, and Mobatalk coverage due to my lack of good looks a webcam.

And after the soul searching I mentioned in my last post, there are several really good things which have renewed my commitment to the site in the jaws of posting something once a week to just keep it going. So this week is a great time to contribute ideas, suggestions, topics, applications, tools or anything else which might be of interest, as I should be online long enough to access my email and even print off some ideas to work onn for my return…just drop your input to thewayoftheweb at googlemail dot com

I’ve been watching the developments in online video from the sidelines, as somone who is still embarrassed by his time hosting a semi-professional daily webcast, and who has managed to avoid owning a webcam.

I can see why there’s an initial curiosity around lifecasting, but the reality is generally somewhat duller. I do get the idea of Seesmic, but I think to get the most out of it requires a commitment similar to starting out on Twitter, and I haven’t quite yet convinced myself it’s an additional output I need to find time for. I occasionally enjoy 12seconds.tv, but although the short clips are quite punchy and to the point, it always feels like I’m skimming over people’s ideas. (Although I do think @Documentally has really transcended the medium)

But I’m being totally honest when I say Mobatalk has convinced me that video has now arrived for microblogging – and for quick, easy broadcasting to friends and contacts.

Put simply, you go to the site, record a video clip (which plays back at a reall high quality in comparison to other services), and type a Twitter message into the site, along with a hashtag, which then posts it to Twitter with a link to the video.

Not only is it stunningly simple, but the navigation is really nice to use, with a really simple, intuitive and attractive display.

And then you discover you can subscribe via iTunes and Google Reader to an individual – or a hashtag – perfect for videos of live events etc. And did I mention you can also access videos via your iPhone?

I’m not the only one impressed by Mobatalk , but considering my natural cynicism, and the fact I’m in the middle of quitting cigarettes after 13 years, and I’m pretty surprised I can’t find any obvious faults.

It’ll be interesting to see how Michael Bailey – @mobasoft – develops the site, but there are advertising options already available, the video upload is quick and amazingly good quality, and it integrates well with Twitter.

It might even be enough to get me in front of a camera again – 140char weekly vidcast, anyone?

A few things have caught my eye over the last couple of days, so here’s a bit of a micro-update:

Matt Balara writes about an interesting case of being followed on Twitter, and highlights some etiquette issues and changes in how people are interacting in the modern world.

Seesmic has a new Nokia N95 client which not only allows you to upload and view videos from the service on your phone, but also reply to friends videos, build a threaded conversation and post to Twitter with a video link. More details and a video demo at Loic Le Meur’s blog.

The Twitter Song is still gaining fame for songwriter Ben Walker, and over 200,000 views on Youtube so far. Plus appearances on BBC Radio 5 and National Radio New Zealand.

Techcrunch takes a look at the very interesting Twittermoms.com. It’s not a mommy Twitter clone, but a Ning based group for mothers who already use Twitter. It underlines why many people think Twitter should introduce groups, like new enterprise blogging tool Present.ly.

And finally, you can enhance your Tweets and save characters with Twitterkeys.

I know Friday is the traditional day for a round-up post, but so much happens in the microblogosphere on a daily basis, all the 140char team have been busy, and Monday gives some nice alliteration:

• Some stats from Twitter on how the new SMS rules have affected UK Outbound SMS usage:

• Zygotweet and tweetSMS plan to offer Twitter via SMS in the UK (Via Twitterholics)
• Useful and interesting list and stats for newspapers on Twitter (Well, American ones!).
• Jaiku got hit by a power failure at the data center provider for their web servers earlier today, but is back online.
• Plurk has had some minor design and usability upgrades.
• Pownce has integrated FireEagle, which means all your uploads and messages can now be automatically geo-tagged with your location.
• Tumblr now allows you to search within Tumblelogs.
• And Seesmic has a new and improved search function, and threaded player. The improvements to the player make it more and more a mini-application for your website and blog, which now lets you: -start a new conversation straight from where you are without having to leave the site, -reply to any video in private and not only in public. -post to twitter the link from your reply.

So not too much has happened!

So far, much of the focus on microblogging has been on text, with the one major exception of Seesmic. But using Seesmic as a producer requires a certain amount of effort. It also lends itself to video blog type discussions.

Hence interest around the private alpha launch of 12 Seconds, limiting video uploads in the same manner as Twitter and Plurk et al limit the amount of text.

Updates are by webcam or mobile phone, and there’s no scientific reasoning disclosed behind the 12 second limit, although apparently “Our patent pending Electro-Tear-Duct Prongers have determined that exactly 12 seconds of video is the ideal amount of time to keep anything interesting.”

What is also quite interesting is that the people behind 12 Seconds are open about: “The more we can get 12seconds off of the 12seconds.tv site the better. We are building a platform for video status. We want these clips to be anywhere you are, or at least anywhere you want them to be.” So widgets are already available for Myspace and blogs, and more distribution is doubtless on the way…

It’s worth taking a look to see how much information can be conveyed in 12 seconds via video. My only question about the service is that it successfully replicates the upload portion of microblogging – but are there mechanisms for replying to people, and forming groups? Those are the things that have driven Twitter, Friendfeed and all the famous social networks. If I see 12 seconds that are worthy of praise, comment or argument, I want to be able to respond directly via the service – not have to track people down by alternative means.

Take a look at the site, and share your thoughts below…

Aside from being a tongue twister, tracking Twitter trends is increasingly useful in spotting where conversations are happening around a given subject.

Twist does a nice job of graphing trends by ‘last week, ‘last month’ or ‘all time’, and let’s you view multiple trends separated by commas in the search box.

It’s free to use, and comes from Flaptorplurk, a search and consultancy firm headed by Diego Basch, a former senior engineer at Inktomi Search, which is now part of Yahoo!

And most importantly, Twist is now included in our great, and ever growing list of Microblogging tools for Twitter, Plurk, Pownce, Seesmic etc. So you can find the right tool for the job, here.

It’s the weekend, so I’ve taken a bit of a break from the latest news – yes Twitter is still up and down like the Assyrian Empire, and Plurk is still getting a lot of buzz. See the graph below for blogs mentioning Plurk over the last 30 days:

But in the meantime, I’m adding to the blogroll (See right). We’ve also kicked off the first Plurk pack list we’re aware of, to compile a list of notable Plurkers by discipline, and we’ve started experimenting with listing any microbloggers looking for advertising/sponsorship, and companies looking for microbloggers to fund. So if you’re looking to get paid or sponsored for Twitter, Plurk, Seesmic, Pownce work, then why not list yourself…

Any other suggestions for items to add, or any offers from possible contributors, are always welcome. After all 140 char isn’t just a character limit – 140 contributors (characters!) could be one hell of a resource.