Twitter: The new backbone of the web?
Although I haven’t used Twitter for a long time, I can clearly see what is happening. Twitter is becoming the new backbone of the web (if not the world).
Twitter is becoming the place where data comes in and data goes out. For a better metaphor, it is beginning to act like a massive gate. Through the use of simple link posting and Twitter’s API, lots and lots of data comes into this gate. You are the owner of this gate and decide which information you read. The rest of the data just goes by.
What I’m trying to say is, is that Twitter has become a backbone for everything that is happening on the web: The proverbial Informational Highway. The web feeds straight into Twitter, where the users disseminate the information. There are loads of examples of this. The largest is obviously simply posting links and then after that, services like my Tweekly.fm. It takes the data that is already there, that is somewhere else, feeds it into the gate where the information promulgates around. It is interesting, because WE are the cogs of this machine. WE choose how the data is gathered and dispersed.
The power of Twitter as a means for attracting information and acting as a force for sharing information is becoming uparalalled. The more people that use Twitter, the more of the web’s data gets feeded into it. It creates a very interesting environment where, for example, news is heard before traditional media catches on.
It will really be interesting to see what happens in the future! Heck even @Google joined Twitter today. That must mean something. Kudos to Jack Dorsey and co.
