Internet

Time to beat Twitter

Written by Trick on May 21, 2008 8:57 am EST

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Twitter has become an increasingly important tool in my everyday life. I’m on Twitter constantly reading the latest news from friends. I have friends around the world and it has allowed me to easily keep them in the loop about where I am, what I’m doing, and what I think or need at that time. That is, If their system will ever stay up.

For those of you who don’t know, Twitter is a “micro-blogging” app that you can utilize through a simple text message/SMS on your phone. Then their system will send that message to everyone who is following you. In turn, you will receive messages from those you are following.

Twitter is stuck playing a constant game of catch up in terms of system capabilities, they’re simply unable to expand their hardware to continue to meet usage needs. I’m not saying anything new here, Twitter is a perennial favorite on TechCrunch as the honcho Mr. Arrington rants about the frustrating downtime with the service.

What astounds me is that even with the continual downtime, the site continues to grow and expand.

Maybe you’re a hacker with a dream of striking it rich, here’s what you do: dethrone Twitter.

How?

You beat Twitter at the uptime game.

Go into it with way too many servers, maybe go with the bare minimum setup and as soon as any hint of success is on the horizon, add 100 more servers, issue the press release about how you’re not going to be the next twitter, and then take it to the bank.

Seriously, the system like Twitter is complex, but it isn’t like Google’s secret sauce, you just need a handful of knowledgeable CS Majors who understand the problems it poses, and you need to properly plan the system infrastructure with a major eye towards expanding the system.

Oh, and for bonus points, set it up to automatically migrate tweets, followers and who you’re following. Then you’re in business.

But Trick, you say, Twitter isn’t even cash flow positive yet, how do I make my money? If you can promise uptime, users will be flocking to your service even if it is for a small fee, or perhaps an agreement to see an ad a day or something like that. I would gladly let Twitter send me an ad a day or even pay a small fee for this service.

And I know I’m not alone.

So what about the other micro-blogging sites out there? Tumblr, Pownce, Facebook or Utterz. All of them suffer from an incorrectable problem. They’re too complex for what Twitter does. They add all these bells and whistles, but for the time it has to be a simple system until our Cellular network enters the next generation of mobile internet usage.

If no one else is going to do it, then I guess it comes down to me. This is my offering to you all, this is your chance.

Trackback URL for this post: http://www.gimmiethescoop.com/time-to-beat-twitter/trackback

One Response to “Time to beat Twitter”

John Lessnau Says:
May 22nd, 2008 at 2:50 pm
With another $5 million in funding, one would think Twitter could have a reliable server farm and hire a server guru to make sure the site stays up and running 99.9% of the time. They aren’t exactly serving giant youtube like videos. What’s their problem?

Give me $1 million to work with and I could out Twitter Twitter. Note to VCs - I’m available.