Twitter users know that the service goes down fairly often, but thatdoesn't seem to alienate them. While Twitter has certainly had its issues with user retention in the past, itcontinues to grow. Last month, the site grew by nearly 10% (over the previous month) by ourestimates, with total registered users estimated at 122 million. That'snot Facebook-like numbers, but it's pretty significant. One almost hasto wonder if those numbers would be higher if the "Fail Whale" didn't make so many appearances. Twitterusers, for the most part, don't seem to mind him too much though. .
What makes you keep coming backto Twitter, despite frequent downtime? Tell us.
The Downtime
Frequent downtime is nothing new for Twitter. It's been going on prettymuch as long as Twitter's been around. You would think that by now,they'd have it under control, but no such luck.
The latest post on the Twitter status blog from just today says, "We'recurrently experiencing a high rate of errors (whales) on Twitter.com.Our infrastructure and operations engineers are responding to theincident. One from Monday night talks about site availability issues.This is a pretty common theme on the blog. June 9th..."site availabilityissues". June 8th...site availability issues...May 5th..."site largelyunavailable. April 22nd..."elevated errors." April 20th..."high errorrate." April 12th...."high error rate." April 5th..."general siteoutage." March 25th..."high error rate." You get the idea. This is allscattered among posts about missing tweets, missing follower counts, andother issues. And I'm pretty sure there has not been a correspondingupdate every time I've personally seen the Fail Whale.
Is it the Features?
Twitter continues to put out new features. Is it the increasedusefulness of the service that keeps people coming back? Most recently,they launched Twitter Places for location-sharing (a very popularphenomenon these days). This will keep that crowd coming back, althoughtoo much Foursquare could alienate others (or at least reduce somefollower counts).
Businesses are expecting more features specifically for them. Twitter bought an analytics company recently, and more business account-related goodies are expected tocome. As we've discussed repeatedly, there are plenty of opportunitiesfor businesses to take advantage of Twitter, but what about regularusers?
Is it the Apps?
The Twitter ecosystem is possible because of Twitter's API. Thanks tothis, many apps have been created that make Twitter more useful topeople, catering to their specific preferences. If you don't likeTwitter, you can probably find an app out there that makes you like it more.
Is it Search?
Twitter is probably the leading source of real-time information, whichis becoming a greater factor in how people search. People searchTwitter for the latest updates on topics, and they search Google, whichwill also bring up real-time results, heavily saturated with tweets. Isthis why people keep using Twitter?
Is it News?
Beyond just search, Twitter provides up to the second news. Itprovides trending topics where users can see what is being talked aboutheavily at any given time. It gives users RSS-style, personalized newsorganization. Twitter put this kind of functionality in the mainstream,and got users reading news this way that never knew what RSS was orunderstood the concept - the news you care about coming right to you inone place.
It also provides a very easy format for creating the news. If you'reon the scene, it's easy to push out a quick tweet. Is this why peoplekeep coming back?
Is it the Name?
It seems that people (at least in the media) just can't get enough oftalking about Twitter. You know you've heard countless mentions andsarcastic jabs at the use of "Twitter" and "tweeting" on TV news, on theradio, in the newspapers, during sporting events, late night talkshows, etc. Does the constant exposure of Twitter contribute to whypeople won't put it down?
Some Answers
I asked a number of people why they think people keep coming back toTwitter, even though the service is frequently on the fritz. Answersvary, but they are probably all spot on.
Starting in-house, our own Mike McDonald says, "Because at the end ofthe day, nobody loses any sleep over not being able to tweet. It'ssomething done in passing for the bulk of their user base. If it's down,there is Facebook or 50 other ways they can broadcast some idea, andit'll be back up at some point...Twitter is easier."
A couple good answers came from our Facebook fans. Gary Spencer says, "It's the funnywhale picture, gotta love that."
Tom Bill simply says, "It's free."
Siok Siok Tan, who's making a documentary about Twitter (which she tellsme should be done in August or September...read our intreview with herabout that here) says, "Because Twitter's main attraction isn'tits flawless technology. It is the unique catchment of people that ithas managed to aggregate."
Jason Falls, who runs Social Media Explorer, says, "Why will Twitter userstolerate downtime from the service? Because they probably need a breakfrom it anyway."
"Seriously, though, Twitter is a conversation place," he adds. "There'sno network or platform out there right now with as large a user base andan already established network of contacts where you can just go andchat with people. Twitter has the market on open-forum, groupconversation enabling. Until there is a better option, people will putup with it."
Alternatives?
"To clarify the answer: Our instant messaging platforms are mostlyclosed and don't allow for open/public conversation among large groups,"Falls continues. "Facebook isn't real-time enough from auser-experience perspective. The other microblogging platforms (yeah, afew still exist) don't have YOUR network of friends already built in.And even if they did, none of them have the variety of third party appsand add-ons that Twitter does. They've got a monopoly on the onlineuser's desire to chitter chatter. Sad but true."
Michael Gray of AtlasWebService, who is a frequent user, says, "Inmy opinion is has to do with where your friends are. No one likesFacebook's crazy privacy settings and there are lots of other socialnetworks where you have more control, but none of your friends arethere. Jaiku offered a very similar service to twitter, but they wherenever able to get that critical mass of users. As long a Twitter has theconcentration of people you want to share things with people will putup with downtime."
Mike Stelzner, founder of SocialMediaExaminer.com, has a slightly differentperspective, however. He says, "They are moving to Facebook more andmore. Keeping Twitter because everyone they trust is there, but movingto FB."
Will Google Buzz creep its way into the fold? Some think it's on the way up, and while Google hasnever presented Buzz as a replacement for Twitter or Facebook, it couldhappen with the users' help. It's already got the retweet-like feature,the retweet button-like buttons, the early adopters (many of the sameones that Twitter had), and now the API to get developers creating andintegrating the apps (not to mention all of the other Google propertiesto integrate if they so choose). What it doesn't have is the downtime(Gmail fails every once in a while, but it is nothing like the rate ofthe Fail Whale).
However, Google Buzz also doesn't have the Oprahs and the JustinBiebers making it appealing to the masses. Sadly, this could be one ofthe biggest things holding it back. Time will tell if that changes.
But for now, people seem content to stick with Twitter and cut theFail Whale some slack. It is clear that people love Twitter (maybe weshould turn to the one-word answers people gave about Twitter lastyear). They love it so much, they will put up with frequent downtime,and hardly think twice about it. But Twitter might want to get thisunder control before it's too late, because there are alternatives outthere, and this Fail Whale tolerance might not last forever.
Do you use Twitter? We want to hear from you. What makes youkeep using it despite the frequent fail whales? Comment here.
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