A Twitter 'Add-on'

I think the future of Twitter is user innovation. But it looks like Twitter is going a different way - tailoring the user experience into a series of  'room with a meme' - places that are groomed towards marketing to a specific lifestyle.

I can imagine thousands of these 'apartments' being crafted in real-time - tailored and massaged globally by teams of marketers, directed at paid-for target markets.

Yuck!


So I thought of this machine that could change all that.

A Twitter 'Add-on' that allows users to 'finess' twitter data using boolean search for any word, tag, or code; and present the results in real time, in a variety of temporal graphic representations.

I imagine an interface similar to the Alexa Page Rank graphs - where a number of addresses can be added to a series of input boxes along the y-axis - the user presses 'Enter' - and line-graph representations of page rankings data appear for the specified period, for the addresses entered.

In Twitter temporal is everything - so temporal graphic interfaces are key in this.

Twitter users will be able to target a specific neche topic instantly; and refine their niche quickly. As such, sub-cultures inside Twitter will flousish in unexpected ways - leading to more and more user innovation.

With the ability to 'read' Twitter in this way, crowd sourced inovation will flousish. People love statistics that show them who they are, and how popular - or not popular - they are. It provides another layer of community, which helps creates self-identity. If it is made easy to do this on Twitter, people will find interesting ways to 'count' and compare themselves and their friends; especially amoung young people who - at a certain period of their lives spend alsmost ALL thier time building self indentity in this way.

A real-time music video countdown comes to mind; a derivation of a broadcast eras' weekly music countdown shows.

Real time voting might develop in Twitter. Imagine an API that funnels a hash tag response to a question; the results updated in real time and feed into (for example) an html5 'canvas' element, embedded in the tweet and that features a Live graphic representation of votes cast.

The result is not really an 'Add-on' - this would change Twitter like html changed letter writing.



mh