Due to scalability problems, the micro-blogging platform Twitter has struggled mightily to stay up and running the last few months.  As a result of the problems, a lot of folks are threatening to abandon Twitter for the social aggregator service FriendFeed.

I personally won’t be abandoning Twitter for Friendfeed.  Here’s why:

(1) There is too much noise on FriendFeed.

I’m currently following around 160 people on Twitter.  Some of these people I know well in real life.  Some casually.  Some not at all.  I’m able to follow and learn from this large group of  people because all I see is what they type in their Twitter status bar periodically.  Sure, some people tell you what they had for breakfast.  But most people exert some level of editorial discipline on themselves, and only write when something at least semi-interesting happens.

They don’t tweet about every meal they have, just the really, really good ones.  They don’t share every item they come across on the web, just the interesting ones.  The result is a usually compelling stream of anecdotes that is updated throughout the day.

FriendFeed has no such editorial discipline.  In addition to receiving those few choice anecdotes each day about the people you follow, you also learn what they are listening too on Last.fm, what is in their Netflix queue and what they dugg on Digg, among other things.  I might be interested in knowing that stuff about my 10-20 closest friends, but certainly not about all 160 people I follow on Twitter.  It is just too much.

(2) I have no desire to recreate my Twitter network on FriendFeed.

I’ve been on Twitter for close to a year and a half now.  I’ve amassed a modest network of followers and, more importantly, have developed a good list of people I follow.  This happened organically over time and I have no desire to start over on FriendFeed.   I’m not Robert Scoble - I can’t just say I’m going over to FriendFeed and have everyone move with me.  I’m in the same boat as Patrick Ruffini, a fellow poli-tech blogger who wrote:

But the main reason I can’t brook switching to FriendFeed is the sunk cost of building up my Twitter network, and the fact that FriendFeed is still mostly for elite tech blogger groupies. I now have 898 followers on Twitter, and my posts still generate far more conversation on Twitter than they do on FriendFeed. That’s because most of my followers are interested in politics, and political users aren’t (yet) over on FriendFeed.

(3) For whatever reason I don’t like the FriendFeed user experience.

Tantek Celik wrote a great post a while back about how Twitter is successful due to its dead simple interface that minimizes keystrokes.  On the occasions when Twitter is working, it feels much less like a website than a utility that is part of you.  For me FriendFeed still feels very much like a website, and a slightly disorienting one at that.  It is just not the same.

In our post announcing the launch of our Bivings Twitter account, I mentioned being inspired by the way other companies/organizations are using Twitter (what is Twitter?). The organization that I was thinking of specifically when I launched our account was Zappos.com. Lots of organizations are jumping on the Twitter bandwagon and using the tool to publish RSS feeds and have one way conversations. But very few at this point are using Twitter to actually engage with customers and stakeholders. Zappos.com is one of the few.

Zappos has set up their own Twitter micro site to highlight the company’s use of Twitter. The site features:

• A “Beginners Guide to Twitter” that does a good job of explaining what Twitter is exactly.
• A leaderboard, sorted by number of followers, that lists all Zappos.com employee Twitter accounts (252 of them). By doing this, Zappos is empowering all their employees to engage with customers through Twitter.
• A reverse chronological list of all employee tweets.
• A reverse chronological list of all Zappos.com mentions on Twitter.

Importantly, Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh is the company’s most active and followed Twitter user. Just in the last few days, he has used his account to:

• Share some details about what he’s up to personally and professionally.
• Provide some behind the scenes info regarding what its like to work at Zappos.com.
• Launch a Twitter contest asking people to help them rewrite their confirmation emails.
• Incubate an idea for polling customers on Twitter.
• Explain why he is using Twitter.

Don’t believe they are into it? Check out Tony’s business cards.

Zappos.com is successfully using Twitter to put a human face on the company and engage with customers more deeply. I’m impressed. If we do half as well with our own Twitter account, I’ll be happy.

Last week, Hugh MacLead of Gaping Void (his cartoon above) announced that he was leaving the micro-blogging platform Twitter because he found it was distracting him from what he really wanted to be doing: writing books and drawing cartoons.

Rex Hammock responded with a sensible post calling for moderation:

I like Twitter and have written on this blog about how I believe it can serve many positive purposes. But yes, it can be a time-waste. That’s why I try to keep my Twittering in the background and turned off while working. I’ve found the program Twirhl, a desktop Twitter (and other services) client is helping me filter out lots of Twitter noise and have a better framework and context for the use of Twitter.

This struck a chord with me, as I am finding my current Twitter use unsustainable and have more or less abandoned the tool over the last week.

I find Twitter most useful when I read most of the updates of the people I am following. That way, you truly get to know the people you are following and can participate in the conversation that is taking place on Twitter. If I don’t read most of the updates, I find Twitter disorienting - it is like picking up a book and trying to read it backwards.

I’m currently following around a hundred people, and I would guess that I would have to be on Twitter an hour a day cumulatively to truly keep track. I’m not willing to make that kind of time investment. Given that, I’m left with a few choices:

1. Abandon Twitter altogether like Hugh.
2. Trim my list of people I’m following to a more manageable level.
3. Abandon the conversation aspect of Twitter and use it as a glorified listserv, a la Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Seth Godin. Basically stop listening, or drop in and out of the conversation at best.

I’m not sure what I’ll end up doing. I suspect other people are facing the same dilemma, as with many Twitter users you see periodic fits of activity followed by long periods of silence. I would guess these people are like me - they stop seeing the value because they don’t have time to follow the conversation.

Note: I just read an anecdote that pretty well sums up the Twitter time dilemma. Blogger Ryan Kruder recently called out Seth Godin for using Twitter as a one way communication vehicle (Godin never participates in conversations on Twitter and nearly all his posts are automatically imported via Twitterfeed). Godin responds:

If I twit, and do it well, as Garret seems to say, then what shall I give up? I already don’t sleep or comb my hair…

That pretty well sums up how I feel about Twitter right now.

I must admit that texting is not my favorite activity.  It's something that I rarely do.  In fact, when friends send me text messages that require a response, I typically call them back hoping that the they get the tacit hint.  However, Amazon may change my druthers.

The Associated Press reports today about Amazon's text message shopping feature, which launched late yesterday.  Now people can send a text to 262966 (which spells "Amazon" on the telephone keypad) with the description, UPC, or ISBN of an item.  Amazon will see if it has the item and send back two items at a time.  The texter can request more items or buy the item by texting back.

That's pretty spiffy and useful.  Who would've thought that text messaging would serve as a viable comparison shopping tool?  Since I like to use Amazon, this might coax me to text more. 

However, one thing that I do have to consider is the occasional impulse buy.  Do I really need that toothbrush shaped Pez dispenser?

A little over a year ago I wrote a post that guessed which emerging technologies would have an impact on the 2008 election cycle. I figured I’d take a quick look back and grade my predictions, as well as list a few new technologies that have emerged since I last covered this ground.

Here are the grades I would give my predictions (original post is here for background):

(1) Ning (Niche Social Networks)

I’d give myself a C on this one. Many of the major Presidential candidates launched niche social networks on their campaign sites, hoping to encourage connections among volunteers. However, none of these niche networks really got that much traction except for Barack Obama’s. And no campaign used the specific service I recommended, Ning (which I think is still worth trying). Ron Paul supporters took the novel approach of trying to turn the entire Internet into a niche social network about Ron Paul, which is another thing entirely. I think there is still something to the idea of niche social networks around campaigns, but most of the action has been taking place on the more established networks (Facebook, MySpace, etc.).

(2) Mozes (Broadcast Text Messaging)

I’d go with a B for this one. The Obama campaign launched a quite aggressive text messaging effort where users are encouraged to text the message “Hope” to 62262 to subscribe to text alerts alerts. Other campaigns have experimented with similar programs. The Obama campaign program works pretty much the exact same way as I described in my post, but no one is using Mozes specifically. It is also really hard to measure the impact of these programs without getting access to subscriber figures.

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Want further proof of Barack Obama’s popularity online? According to the site Twitterholic, Obama has more followers than any other Twitter user (followers are people who sign up to receive a user’s Twitter updates through the service). Here is a chart showing the top 10 users:

Despite this popularity, Obama’s team doesn’t use the service that aggressively. They have only posted 78 updates. The second most popular user, Robert Scoble, has posted 7,499 updates.

You can visit Obama’s Twitter page here and Twitterholic here.

Update: Twitdir is another great resource for looking at data on top Twitter users.

While at the Politics Online Conference yesterday, I attended a rather interesting panel about using cell phones in political and advocacy campaigns.  Some of the panelists represented the One campaign — think Bono — and Rock the Vote.  Since both of these campaigns cater to a younger crowd, they need to use cell phones in connecting with their audiences.

During the panel the representative from Rock the Vote shared an interesting campaign that they just did using text messages.  His organization used their member database to print out voter registration forms and mail them to those people.  All the recipients needed to do was fill in their SSN, sign it, and send it in.  However, Rock the Vote knows that the typical person in their target crowd virtually ignores snail mail.  So they decided to send out a text message to everyone who they sent forms to alerting to them to the fact that the registration form is in their mailbox.  I found that interesting that they would send out something and use another channel as the call to action.  The panelist said that they didn’t have data back yet since they just did this campaign, but I would like to know how effective the text messages were.

Another interesting tidbit from that session was about a health care advocacy group in California that asked people to send it text messages about how they feel about health care as the California State Legislature was debating some new legislation.  This organization then rented out a jumbo-tron and placed it across the street from the legislative chambers.  Thus, when legislators walked outside, they saw text messages about health care from normal citizens on the large screen.

What are some interesting campaigns that you’ve seen involving cell phones?

Way back in February, I wrote a speculative post about technologies I thought might impact the 2008 elections. One of the technologies I mentioned was Twitter. The Hotline (and David All) noted last week that House GOP leader John Boehner is twitterring (sorry). Today, I stumbled across the recently created profiles of House Whip Eric Cantor and the National Republican Congressional Committee (first committee on Twitter I think).

I know that Dem Presidential candidates have jumped on the bandwagon. Does anyone know if it is gaining traction among Dems in the House/Senate like it slowly appears to be doing with the GOP?

My Twitter profile is here.

I had a couple of great conversations with people about SMS at the recent Politics Online Conference. That's what I like best about conferences — the interaction gets me thinking. It got me thinking and talking about SMS and here are my thoughts on the viral potential of SMS.

What makes a medium a good conduit of a viral message? Widespread use. 

First of all for SMS cell phone text messaging to be successful as a medium that encourages viral message spreading amongst a specific demographic, its use needs to be frequent amongst this demographic. I decided to take a look at different kinds of current and future users of SMS to see which demographics would seem to be large enough to encourage viral message spreading via SMS.

Different types of SMS users 

Everyday SMS users

• Demographic 1: 10 to 20 year olds.
  Viral potential: High
  Example: Parents will get their kids unlimited SMS plans so as not to incur high voice plan charges.
  This seems likely and there’s also a small possibility that these kids will continue to use SMS when they grow up – I personally doubt they will because superior technology will be widely available by then. In any case, I think this definitely is or will be the most important SMS demographic.

• Demographic 2: low-income individuals and people working in environments with no internet access.
  Viral potential: High
  Example: Used successfully in organizing immigration reform demonstrations in Washington DC.
  SMS may work well with demographics that do not have regular access to email and IM. Email and IM are more powerful and more functional, and home broadband users and office employees have access to both of them during most of the hours in a day. 

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We have just finished a new mini-research study in which we examined the availability of mobile features for the top 50 newspaper websites and the top 50 English-language blogs. The results were surprising. Just 24% (twelve) of blogs provided mobile content, while 54% (27) newspapers offered a mobile browsing option.

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For those who care, Apple announced the iPhone today and has launched a section of its website about the new cell phone. This phone looks incredible and will probably change the way people think about and use cell phones.

For web developers, it is interesting that Apple is trying to give users a full, computer-like web browsing experience instead of the simplified browsing experience most phones go for. Screenshot below:

Wireless users in the United States aren’t really using the their mobile devices to browse the Internet. At least not yet. A study conducted in April of 2006 found that 18 percent of wireless users had tried mobile Internet browsing and that 6 percent browsed the web from their mobile device regularly.

While the numbers are low, I think the emergence of the mobile Internet is inevitable. As phones get better and download speeds get faster, people will start surfing the Internet on their phones.

As a website developer, that means it is increasingly important to build websites that work on mobile browsers. Fortunately, if you are a WordPress user this isn’t much of a problem. We made a mobile version of The Bivings Report using a great plugin developed by Alex King.

To access our mobile version, simply type www.bivingsreport.com into your mobile browser. That’s pretty much it.

<Rant: All mobile websites should work this way, meaning they should auto-detect whether you are browsing from a mobile phone. Sites that have separate URLs for their mobile versions are missing the boat, in my opinion. Who is going to memorize a separate mobile URL?>

If you are a web developer working on a mobile version, you might try out this mobile phone emulator software from Openwave. It’s free and allows you to see what your site looks like on a mobile phone without having to look on a mobile device.

Just got an email from the Republican National Committe (I'm on every political mailing list known to man) inviting me to join GOP Mobile, their brand spanking new text messaging network.  According to the email, the RNC intends to use the service over the next week to send out election-related breaking news and action alerts to people who sign up.

Good stuff.  Anyone know if the Democratic National Committe has a similar program? Or of any similar programs abroad?

Ajit and Erin’s recent posts about creative uses of text messaging got me thinking about Mozes, a cool texting product I played around with a few months back. In brief, Mozes allows you to create a free account and then register the keywords of your choice. People who send a text message to 66937 (MOZES) with your keyword as the message will get back a custom message of your choosing. In addition, you can use Mozes to encourage users to subscribe to your keyword and you can then send out broadcast messages to all your subscribers whenever you want.

So, I set up an account and registered the keyword “ajitmusic” as an experiment. Ajit is a friend and colleague here at Bivings and, more importantly, a talented musician who plays gigs around DC. Check out his website. Plug. Plug. Plug. Text the message “ajitmusic” to 66937 and you’ll get back a custom message and also an invitation to subscribe to broadcast messages from Ajit (or me I guess - :)). Give it a whirl. (more…)

I listened to an interesting broadcast on NPR this morning about how text messaging is affecting the dating culture in Kabul, Afghanistan.  According to the piece, college students in Afghanistan are using text messaging to secretly initiate relationships.  Dating and marriage remain taboo topics in Afghanistan, as strict rules prevent young men and women from having any interaction with one another before they are married.  NPR’s Rachel Martin reports, “Afghan culture and Islamic tradition dictate that young men and women can’t even look at each other directly, let alone have a private conversation.”

For privileged young adults in Afghanistan, Kabul University resembles somewhat of a haven from the country’s otherwise restrictive social doctrine.  Some students at this university use text messaging to secretly contact members of the opposite sex, and sometimes even use this technology to arrange secret meetings.

For young Afghans, meeting each other for the first time is extremely difficult.  Cell phones are helping some college students there to bend the rules and contact one another directly instead of through third parties.  “Now, instead of passing notes through emissaries or trying to befriend a familiy member of a love interest, young Afghan men can send a text message on a cell phone to introduce themselves to a girl, flirt, or even arrange a secret rendezvous,” states Martin.

When talking about her secret relationship with her boyfriend, a young Afghan girl says “I love him very much.” But their relationship must remain a secret or else “my brother will kill me.”

This trend is a more extreme version of text-message-dating here in the States or in Europe, where cell phone relationships are much more casual, revolving around cute abbreviations and informal communication. Perhaps the most controversial aspect of texting in regards to relationships in the west is whether or not it is acceptable to break up with someone via text message.  In a 2004 survey in Great Britain, 20 percent of Britons aged 15 to 24 admit to breaking up with someone via text message. 

Xeni Jardin, a tech correspondent for NPR, described text messages as “digital post-it notes”, but commented that “while text messaging is a great way to test the romantic waters, it is not a substitute for face-to-face exchange”.

But while text messaging may seem impersonal to Americans or Europeans, it may in fact be the best option for young Afghan lovebirds. 

However, with only 600,000 cell phones for a population of almost 32 million people (just one cell phone for every 52 people), and a per capita income of just $800/year, it’s pretty clear that the cell phone revolution has not yet taken over in Afghanistan.  This leaves only the most privileged young Afghans with the opportunity to use their cell phones in order to take control of their social networks.