Emerging Technologies

Twitter founder: We lucked out with 140 character limit on twitter

By Brij ⋅ May 19, 2008 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

Thanks to @maryhodder running commentary, I get to enjoy concise takeaways from @Ev 's  Yi-Tan call.  You can catchup on Jerry Michalski interview with Twitter founder from this site.

Here is a quick list of all her tweets (Thanks Mary!)

.. could add a layer of context to see what's going on in a place, or around event, or limit updates to those at a place for short time
.. what's coming - making exstng twitter easier to use.. lke when thy added @user symbol for seeing threads, & want to support more Q&A
.. twitter reframes presence.. because it's so much about location but about just being "around" even if not synchronous
.. constant pressure to add more as more people join the system, but it's also simple and they don't want to mess with it so tension there
.. more general marketing like @jetblue or @zappos or political campaigns, entertainers, tv shows, etc. & there is a low bar to create
.. on commercial side is 1. mass following, implementing some controls but also natural control because users control what they see
.. "we lucked out" with 140 character limit on twitter. has a virtuous effect. is concise, quick, & can transfer across mediums - IM, txt (this one is big, see my take on this constraint)

I don't have to add anything to above tweets. They are concise and to the point. That's what makes 140 character limitation so appealing.

I think at this point managing Twitter product road map is a real challenge. It's less about adding efficiency or productivity features. Bigger challenge would be to extend the use of right psychology (with lot of sprinkling from anthropology and sociology!).

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