Hilko Blok

NSFW: Give me ad-free conversations, or give me death (please RT)

Interesting rant on the problems of monetizing twitter (as if you need a link). Of particular interest is the part where I puts into words what I think the main problem of the new retweet functionality is:

Just look at the conceptual abortion that is the new retweet functionality: everyone in their right mind hates it, but few of us can quite explain why. Let me try. When someone retweeted under the old system, it was the equivalent of standing at the cocktail party and saying to our friends “oh, Dave said something interesting the other day…” and then going on to quote Dave, along with our own comments on what Dave had to say. The quoting of Dave was contextual and appropriate.

By contrast, the new retweet function is the equivalent of us snapping our fingers and making Dave himself suddenly appear in the middle of the party. And, then, without so much as an introduction, Dave starts talking. No context, no invitation – just some crazy dude called Dave talking at us, at our own party.

When it comes to monetizing Twitter, I think the main problem lies in the organic nature of the tool. What started out as a mass-sms kind of thing has turned into something that is a hybrid of personal communication and content propagation (that isn’t necessarily personal in nature). In effect, Twitter is now a blend of instant messaging, forum discussion, social bookmarking, and RSS. Any attempt to monetize it will likely be met by hostility from the ‘personal’ crowd, and for good reasons.