Twitter is one of the most popular app people are using today, yet, it is one of the earliest social networking services in the twenty-first century, along with Facebook and Youtube. Today, with over 145 million daily users, there are 6,000 tweets sent each second on average. That’s 500 million tweets sent each day. Therefore, why has Twitter been so popular, and what core ideas keep users so attached to this app?
The idea behind Twitter is simple – it enables users to send and read short messages called “tweets.” Before the entire concept and app were established, four technology entrepreneurs, Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, Biz Stones, and Noah Glass, were first to discover the idea of using text messages to share status. In fact, this idea was called “Stat.us” from Jack Dorsey’s early project in 2000. Later on, there are several different names created for this service, like “Twitch,” “Friendstalker” and “Smssy”. Evan Williams finalized their service name called “Twttr,” a name inspired by Flickr and the five-character length of American SMS short codes. After six months of launching Twttr, they bought the domain Twitter.com and changed their service name to Twitter.
Jack Dorsey and contractor Florian Weber developed the first prototype of Twitter. Also, as Odeo’s members, a startup that was meant to be a podcasting platform, Evan Williams and Biz Stones used the first Twitter prototype as an internal service for Odeo. This prototype allowed all of the employees to see each other’s current status.
The ideation of status-sharing was established based on Jack Dorsey’s earliest sketch back in 2001. On his sketch, you can see the core idea of sharing your moments stayed the same. What has evolved tremendously is the capacity to allow information to spread in an efficient manner. Initially, Twitter was meant for a specific community or a group to broadcast status and information quickly. Then, Twitter launched a verification program to allow celebrities and influential public figures to make their official accounts. This feature led Twitter to be prosperous, and it made a fantastic way of promoting events, new releases, and other important events that attracted people.
Twitter had quickly adapted to the computer age and the mobile age. It is available on the Web platform, but it also has(had) mobile apps for almost all mobile platforms like iOS, Android, Blackberry, and Nokia.
One of the reasons why Twitter can be so addicting to use is because of its “pull-to-refresh” feature, which can also be found on many other popular social apps. This simple touchscreen gesture is created by Loren Brichter, a software developer who is best known for creating Tweetie. It is also a patent application titled “User Interface Mechanics.” The patent app described this innovation as a command to refresh a scrollable list of content items may be displayed. This innovation has drastically changed the user experience where it is implemented in so many different apps, making the content seem endless.
Twitter is successful because of its convenience to share information anywhere and anytime. It also defines our mobile age, where the younger generations need to be constantly fed with information. Its primary purpose was to connect people and allow people to share their thoughts. However, since Twitter has consistently expanded its users and network, the bigger audience doesn’t necessarily mean a better connection. Unfortunately, Twitter has become a political battlefield for many people; whether to discuss topics constructively or to share one’s opinions on specific issues, Will Twitter insidiously influence the virtual community and infiltrate the connections between one another?
Work Cited
Carlson, N. (2011, April 13). The Real History Of Twitter. Retrieved November 18, 2020, from https://www.businessinsider.com/how-twitter-was-founded-2011-4
Smith, K. (n.d.). 60 Incredible and Interesting Twitter Stats and Statistics. Retrieved November 18, 2020, from https://www.brandwatch.com/blog/twitter-stats-and-statistics/
Perez, S. (2012, March 28). Oh, That “Pull To Refresh” Thing In iOS? Yeah, Twitter Has A Patent App On That. Retrieved November 18, 2020, from https://techcrunch.com/2012/03/27/pull-to-refresh-the-patent/
Galvin, L. (n.d.). Twitter. Retrieved November 18, 2020, from https://www.firstversions.com/2015/07/twitter.html
Your title attracted me. Click here to find that it is Twitter. You let me know that Twitter was just a school project in the beginning, which makes me feel incredible. And you showed that Twitter started with a sketchnote, which is very interesting.
it is interesting to see the original sketches in 2001. also, the pull to refresh function is definitely attractive when it was first introduced to the world.
It’s interesting to see how big companies like Twitter started off with a different approach and ended up with another.
I really like the original sketch you included in the article. It’s always fun to see someone’s sketch. It’s even precious to see the very original sketch of Twitter by its early contributor!