A lot went down in the Twitter universe last week. Let’s begin this week with a look back at the week that ‘twas.
Promoted Tweets
Few companies are more conspicuous in their lack of major revenue streams than Twitter. The company took a new step toward rectifying this position by unveiling its new advertising platform that relies on Promoted Tweets. Launched as a pilot program with a few select advertisers, the platform will eventually insert paid Tweets in the stream of Twitter search results. Promoted Tweets will be graded based on a “resonance†score. Resonance will help determine how long any of these sponsored Tweets stay active in the ecosystem. During a week in which Ning announced that it was moving away from free to paid service, it’s encouraging to see that Twitter is finding tools that build toward fiscal security. Unfortunately, they’re going to need a few more solutions in order to truly solve the revenue questions.
Library of Congress
The entirety of the Twitter archive will be entered in the Library of Congress. Every ultra topical update, every conversation fragment and every comment on the lustrous, silky mane of enchantment that is Justin Bieber’s hair will be saved for posterity. Unlike most of the content in the Library, the text may not be nearly as interesting as the information that sits around it. The average Tweet may be banal, but start to tie all the information such as time, place and author identity, and the Twitter archive becomes a beautiful, living snapshot of modern life. It’s a little unclear what exactly the Library will keep in its archive; hopefully a ton of data accompanies all that text. Without the data, the Twitter archive probably becomes a linguistic curiosity. With the data, the Twitter data becomes something important and viable historically, culturally and socially.
Chirp
Twitter held Chirp, its first developers conference. While it gave Twitter a way to convene with the very large community of developers who have traditionally powered some of the most intriguing Twitter-based solutions, it also brought together a group that is feeling growing unease regarding its place in the Twitter ecosystem. Twitter is slowly reclaiming territory that it previously left open to third-party development. However, Twitter is still a very open platform that offers a lot of opportunity. By keeping a positive connection with its development audience, Twitter helps fuel innovation while keeping its eyes open for the best ideas. Hopeful developers can look toward Summize and Tweetie as great examples of companies that were successfully assimilated into the Twitter system.
