We were anticipating a demystifying TED talk from Evan Williams founder of Twitter. We thought that this was it. We’re finally going to have an answer as to what the heck Twitter is anyway (other than a way to semi-stalk celebrities both big and small). So we settled in with a notepad and some microwave popcorn and hit play. Boy were we wrong.
Here are some bullet points from Evan’s talk that made us say, “Really?!”:
- The concept was to be able to send instant updates to friends and family at 140 characters max. Okay that we get. We also get that it’s a bit narcissistic to think that people need a brief instant update on your life. Were email, texting, Facebook, Gchat, and AIM away messages not enough? But please Evan enlighten us more.
- Twitter let’s people share moments of their lives both big and small instantly. Oh, you mean like a phone call or an over sharing blog post.
- Helps people feel more connected no matter where they are in real time. Oh, ALSO like a phone call, text message, or email.
- Twitter did not invent the idea of @messaging. That was created by users. Due to the popularity they decided to incorporate that into the software. WHAT? That’s like being the layperson to invent phone numbers so that you don’t just pick up the phone and immediately start talking to a random person.
- The search function on Twitter was also not originally their idea. We are seeing a trend here. To be fair, Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, but not the phone book.
- The idea of tagging a topic with a “#” (you guessed it) was also not their idea.
- Because they have allowed for API people can write their own software to interact with Twitter. There are currently over 2000 known pieces of software that can send Twitter updates. You know, so that more people can come up uses or ideas for Twitter.
- Twitter has become a way for people during emergencies to spread information fast. For example the 2007 fires in San Diego, fire fighters were posting updates on Twitter. Well, at least now we know what will take the place of the Emergency Broadcast System.
Overall, we were unimpressed with this TED talk. We think that Evan must just be used to speaking his mind at 140 characters at a time. Also he didn’t answer any of the important questions like why did Ashton Kutcher beat CNN in number of followers or more importantly why Twitter is a noun and not a verb. We still hate saying Tweet.
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