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Twitter Names Jack Dorsey Chief Executive

nytimes.com

171–180 of 211 posts

Re: Twitter Names Jack Dorsey Chief Executive

#171

I can't see this working out. Dorsey probably is the best candidate for CEO of Twitter, and I think there are some very low-hanging fruit to pick when it comes to solving Twitter's product issues (I disagree with Startup L Jackson - Twitter's product is not fucking fine). The market reaction has been positive - TWTR opened up 3.15% just now. However, Square is a different story altogether. Square Wallet was a damp sq…

TWTR the stock was down when the news leaked last week, and has gradually regained that ground. In general, though, I've lost 30% of the value of my Twitter stock since Jack's first earnings call. It will take a lot of up days to recover those losses.

Re: Twitter Names Jack Dorsey Chief Executive

#172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then his job is find something else for Twitter to make. Facebook has launched a lot of experimental apps like Paper, Rooms, Slingshot, Messenger. And they bought Instagram which is very successful. Under Costolo Twitter bought vine and periscope, but they haven't tried to experiment with new app ideas internally.

If they went back to their roots as a messaging API for other apps, they would not have to build new apps. Become the messaging backbone for the Internet. That's plenty of scale to go after.

[deleted]

Re: Twitter Names Jack Dorsey Chief Executive

#173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the big challenges is that Twitter is largely geared towards people looking to engage on topical issues in a public forum. If you're an expert in a particular area and consistently engage with other experts in a public forum where the occasional random user chimes in then Twitter has a value proposition for you. I mean it's right there in the platform... people "follow" you, they're not your "friend" or "linke…

Last I checked; thought leaders don't convey their thoughts in 140 characters or less. Nothing of really value is that short. Sorry. Unless you figure out the Theory of Everything... That'll be of value ;)

For sale: baby shoes, never worn.

Re: Twitter Names Jack Dorsey Chief Executive

#174
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It correlates to a domain for a site I'm in the process of building. I haven't registered the brand's trademark yet, so I'm unable to claim the Twitter username based on that criteria. Seems like the only route they provide for this kind of thing.

I believe if you have the domain name you should be able to get the twitter handle. You can always just submit for a trademark, that's easy and cheap.

I've never registered a trademark before. Is there anything more to it than paying the fee and filing the paperwork for a business that's not yet operational?

Re: Twitter Names Jack Dorsey Chief Executive

#175
post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they need to figure out how to fundamentally improve the ease of use of the whole thing I've frequently heard this theory, that Twitter's problem is that it's too complicated. I don't buy it. It has a simpler UI than Facebook or Snapchat, and it's not significantly more complicated than Instagram or Vine or Periscope or any other media sharing platform. If you personally enjoy Twitter and derive value from it, it's…

I feel like it took me a few years to get my "Following" list to where I really liked my stream. Took a lot of patience of adding people every week for what seemed like forever. when people say "ease of use" that's what i think about

Reddit has a list of default subs to get people started. A lot just keep the main list, but some continue to add and subtract as their tastes change. Is that what you are proposing?

Re: Twitter Names Jack Dorsey Chief Executive

#176
post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they need to figure out how to fundamentally improve the ease of use of the whole thing I've frequently heard this theory, that Twitter's problem is that it's too complicated. I don't buy it. It has a simpler UI than Facebook or Snapchat, and it's not significantly more complicated than Instagram or Vine or Periscope or any other media sharing platform. If you personally enjoy Twitter and derive value from it, it's…

I think that was more common to hear as people didn't seem to understand @messages and #hashtags. So when they saw: > .@jack #awesome They didn't know what that meant. Now that hashtags and @ style messaging are just about everywhere, I don't think it is a valid theory.

As a non-twitter-using software engineer, when I land on a twitter page, I still find it fairly intimidating and requiring special knowledge. For example, why is there a dot before the @ in your example? (I actually know the answer to that because I looked it up once, but it's totally not obvious.) What's with all the slashes in numbered lists?

Because of the character limit, people use a lot of abbreviations and shorthand that I can usually figure out with some puzzling, but I shouldn't have to do that.

I still see url-shortener urls all over on twitter, when I should just see regular urls.

These may be minor points, but it adds up to giving off the feeling that there's an in-crowd and I'm not invited. It is much better than it was a few years ago, though, so maybe it'll get there.

(I'm not even getting into the difficulty of actually following a conversation on twitter! Reverse-chronological order plus the lack of linking replies to their parent messages make it nearly impossible, but that's a well-known issue.)

Re: Twitter Names Jack Dorsey Chief Executive

#177
post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem that you need a unique app to interact with every single service out there. How do you feel about random websites pushing you onto their application and then neglecting the web experience? It's fragmentation city. This is the same problem, but for services (in the people doing things for other people sense) rather than hypertext. Think of it as a glue layer that gets you around the need to have 50 differe…

> The problem that you need a unique app to interact with every single service out there. This is not an actual problem. And to the extent that it is 140 characters of text doesn't come close to fixing it. And in the unlikely event that it did why wouldn't SMS do the same thing without having to bring some random third party company into the mix and have both parties at their mercy for zero value added?

This is not an actual problem.

We disagree there. It's annoyance waiting to be solved. Here's a hypothetical, realistic interaction, and as a bonus, one that isn't any less useful due to the length limit:

    >>@friend: Want to catch lunch today?
    @friend: Sure, I'll set that up. Cya there!
    @restaurant Reserve a table for 2 at noon for Karunamon
    >>@restaurant: Confirmed, we'll see you at noon!
    @traffic: How's the traffic between here and @restaurant?
    >>@traffic: ETA 35 minutes, heavy traffic and construction along the optimal route.
    @restaurant Change that last reservation to 12:30
    >>@restaurant: Confirmed, your noon reservation has been moved to 12:30
    @uber Pickup my location to the closest @restaurant
    >>@uber: Driver is on its way. ETA: 5 minutes. Look for a grey Subaru, plates 1234-56.
    @friend: Catching a ride there, see you in half an hour!
And this is pure user interaction, which is the least efficient way to do things possible. If you can't think up a usage for a widespread pub/sub notification system, kindly get your imagination serviced.

As far as the limit, it's up for revision by the sound of things anyways - and keep in mind the original purpose of that limitation was so a tweet would fit into an SMS. If the limit is what you think breaks this idea, you've disqualified SMS by the same rubric.

Re: Twitter Names Jack Dorsey Chief Executive

#179
post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they went back to their roots as a messaging API for other apps, they would not have to build new apps. Become the messaging backbone for the Internet. That's plenty of scale to go after.

Pretty sure that's the basis of removing the 140 char limit for DMs. Some people are way more likely to use Twitter than an 'SMS' type messenger that wants phone numbers that they don't know.

Precisely the reason why LINE is so popular in Asia particularly between people who just met.

Re: Twitter Names Jack Dorsey Chief Executive

#180
I hope Jack realizes that Twitter is not a great tool to chat with friends / neighborhood / family, but an incredible tool to reach people who are away from you, social and geographical.

They need to focus on how easy it is to approach a movie star, your favorite player and musician you like. How easy it is to show that you like a brand or you love a new TV show. And talk about some major events that are happening around you.

For people who have no idea what it is, they just see it as a tool to talk to someone. And most of the time, you do not have any feedback on what you wrote. In fact, you may not have any idea how many people have read what you have written.

So I think if they focused on showing how Twitter is great for expanding the boundaries of what you want to talk and make easy to see feedback from people about what you have spoken, they can attract more people.

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