Microsoft could be the next Twitter

Posted on April 24, 2007 by Benjamin Koe


Since Facebook just launched a possible Twitter rival that integrates right into its social network, it suddenly dawned upon me that Microsoft could do something very similar that would immediately create a user base many times larger than Twitter’s without the users themselves realising the change.

Let me explain, since Microsoft Messenger 6 (I think) users have been able to add a personal message next to their display name. This long-time and well-loved feature, is strikingly similar to Twitter save the ability to have a thread of past messages and a mix of yours and your friend’s.

I’ve seem the personal message used to denote current location, wishing everyone on a festival day, self publicity (alright I admit I do this too), and even… ahem… to do a Steve Rubel.

I guess the difference is that the personal message is currently a real-time platform as opposed to a time-stamped one like Twitter. But I see little difference since what you’re doing now will inevitable be what you’ve done just before. In fact, it’ll be nice to see a trail of “what I’m listing to” at different times of the day.

I don’t claim to be a fantastic programmer, but I truly believe that all Microsoft has to do is build in those rather simple Twitter features into Microsoft Messenger and immediately you’ll have a “twittering” crowd of over 400 million without changing anything about the way its users behave.

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4 Responses to “Microsoft could be the next Twitter”

  1. Kenny, on April 24th, 2007 at 4:37 pm Said:

    That is so true. Makes you wonder what’s taking MS so long to implement something like that. Hmmm……

  2. Cool Insider, on April 24th, 2007 at 11:00 pm Said:

    Maybe you should go and pitch the idea to Microsoft? Who knows, it may land you something cushy… ;)

  3. Kevin, on April 25th, 2007 at 2:02 am Said:

    IM -> Twitter -> IM ?

    Twitter was designed as an elaborate way to communicate one’s “current status”. It took cues from how instant messengers allow you to indicate your status, then went further by integrating SMS, IM and Web interfaces into one, in reversed-chronological order. In other words, it’s a glorified status indicator.

    To “Twitter” in any IM service (not just MSN), simply update your status in your IM client for everyone to see. It’s worked for ages and delivers results. Just try putting something funny in your IM status and wait for responses.

  4. Benjamin Koe, on April 25th, 2007 at 9:24 am Said:

    Thanks for the comments guys.

    @Kevin: That’s exactly it. A glorified status indicator. And the ability for Microsoft to take it one step further and trump Twitter is such an obvious next step if they believe in the model.

    I wonder how well the Facebook one is doing.

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