Yesterday I posted about checking out the new service called Twitter that all the cool folks like Robert and Chris were all a twitter about <groan .. sorry couldn’t help that> and I have come away with one conclusion – Twitter still needs some work before its ready.
Like really guys having to manually refresh the member home page which lists your on-going Twitters <damn that sounds so stupid> is just out of place and totally takes away from the usefulness; if there can really be any in the first place, of Twitter. Perhaps this is really one place where some judicious use of Ajax would be helpful.
Now can we get to how ugly the Twitter page is – and you want us to stare at this page all day while we expunge our momentary thoughts upon the web and then wait in breathless anticipation for replies. I’m sorry but the color scheme alone is enough to make me run screaming after the first 15 minutes of absolutely nothing happening.
On top of this is that I just don’t get the reasoning behind why this is a cool Web 2.0 app. Fundamentally the idea of having keep one page at the forefront all the time just so you can sputter a few words at a time is just stupid; not that the concept of Twitter is – just the blind acceptance that it had to be a Web 2.0 browser based app is stupid.
Chances are that if this was something that I could run as a desktop widget; or even a Vista Sidebar widget, then I might understand using it and probably enjoy it. However as a strictly browser based app it is a waste of time and energy not to mention forcing me to maintain a separate open browser window for it is dumb.
Don’t get me wrong I do think the concept has merit. In some ways it is almost the natural evolution of the Instant Messaging idea that is a natural part of our computing life. The idea of having a fluid grouping of friends and interests available constantly is cool; but then I’m spoiled as I’ve been an IRC user for years with a small channel populated by folks that have become my closest friends.
I’ll keep an eye on Twitter because I like the idea but for now my Twittering days are done.
UPDATE: Blogs never fail to amaze me all time with the feedback that can happen within a very short period of time. Shortly after posting this piece Biz Stone (from Obvious) pointed me to the Twitter Wiki where you can find more that a few ways to interface with Twitter. which is where I found a much better (for my needs at least) WordPress widget to use on the site (it could do with as couple of thing but definitely more in line with what I want for display) and along with that a nice desktop interface to Twitter which could do with a couple improvement but will work for now.
I guess all that remains now is to see if I ever get any friends to Twitter with 
– my profile can be seen here http://twitter.com/StevenHodson in the meantime I still agree with to an extent with Karoli who said in the comments that it is much like passing notes in school – let the note passing begin LOL
A new way of letting folks into your daily life; boring as it may be, has been percolating through the blogosphere for the past couple of weeks. This transformation of the inane (
