Twitter is fine as it is for me, if the add other features they might be useful or the might not be useful as long as the main service dosn't change I don't really give a shit.
That said I dont belive that Twitter will ever be bigger then Google.
The other part of the problem people's views on Twitter/Facebook et al. is that your experiences on each network tend to be a reflection of how much effort you've put into getting the most out of each.
For example, for me, Twitter has FAR more value on a daily basis than Facebook. From my perspective, Facebook is a glorified flickr account. But that's just me. Meanwhile Twitter is my go to news source along with Hacker News. Market valuations wouldn't reflect my personal perspectives on each network!
Twitter needs to get MUCH better at helping users get the most out of their personal user experience on the network - otherwise it will never reach it's true potential.
Good riddance to Twitter. G+ has a lot of room for improvement, but Twitter's lack of usability is mind boggling.
Thanks for your feedback.
I completely agree that twitter got worse - especially at social conversations. This was the reason why i saw them - like you - as the forever second (if not last). But the move to categorize, contextualise and present real time content and provide it for third partners is a big businessmodel. E.g. thousands of press agencies pay their bills like that - and twitter has already a pull by media houses to go that way. If developers were ok to pay for firehouse i am pretty sure mediahouses will pay for firehouse news.
And as said - i agree it sucks at several levels. But this wy to look at it gave me a new light to it.
Andi
ps: It's not a PR plant but my opinion, even if it's laughable.
There's been sponsored advertisements in my twitter stream for a few months now.
I've been saying for the last year or more that Twitter is doomed. I stand by that prediction. Twitter was originally envisioned as a place for real-time status updates. It became a place where, to a certain extent, news broke but now? It seems to be a graveyard where people follow celebrities.
Not that there isn't necessarily a business model in following celebrities but it seems like the difference between being Facebook and being Myspace.
Twitter is (IMHO) terrible at conversations. As others have mentioned, they're disjointed.
This post raves about Twtitter's real time abilities and potential but:
1. There is only real-time data to process while people use it and, honestly, I don't see the incentive to produce it. Twtitter just seems to be another box your brand management company checks on their social media checklist; and
2. There's still no hint of a business model anywhere.
Honestly, the idea that Twitter will be "bigger than Google", even for a narrow area like "real time", is laughable.
I see Twitter as another "bubble" company (like Quora). People in the Valley think it's big because "everyone" (in the Valley) uses it but this gives a very distorted view. Twitter is more mainstream than Quora but I wouldn't be surprised if Twitter's 7-day actives were much lower than the ~175 million accounts and stagnant, even waning.