On the day that Google makes its next play in the mobile handset market and transforms itself into Googlerola through the purchase Motorola there is much to speculate and comment on.
Acquiring IP, the future of Android, adding more pieces to the Google jigsaw and who’s next appear to be the main themes of the discussion. As yet no op:ed pieces on how acquisitions and late to market Me2′s(Think Google+) have become the growth strategy of Silicon Valley’s nextgen innovation engine but I am sure they will follow as the news cycle fades.
I won’t bore you with my take on these events. After all who needs yet another monday morning quarterback when we are already well served in these matters by the likes of Tomi Ahonen and Horace Dediu? Having said this it is an interesting game of mobile monopoly come diplomacy that is being played out across the media and communications landscape at this time. With each new move changing the relative strengths and weakness of all the players at the table.
It also illustrates just how far out of the main game the tradition media companies are in all this. Other than Sony there is no recognisable mainstream media brand at the table. It also raise the question of what’s next after the handsets. Will we see the networks come into play?
What I found interesting was watching the “twitterstorm” that was played out on Twitter around the time of the announcement.
I readily admit that I use Twitter as little more than a memory stick. A place to store articles on interest that may or may not prove useful in the context of a post I may be writing in the future. Other than that I look upon Twitter as little more than a playground for bots. When someone talks to me about trending now on Twitter my mind drifts towards the manufacturing of machine consent rather than tapping into the crowdsong. Which of course is what makes the valuation of So.Me startups so PeopleBrowsr so interesting. If the key to analytics is primarily about trust in the data what can you tell me about my audience? Are my fans and followers machines or people? More importantly who has more Klout? Man or Machine?
The Googlerola twitterstorm provided me with the insight that when it is a hot medium Twitter is more like a news bidding platform than a conversational platform. I say that because the screen was awash with bids for the most astute insight into the Googlerola announcement. It reminded me of a scene from one of those old movies where the kids stand in groups on the street corner shouting “News! News! Read all about it!”. All of which confirms my initial impressions that Twitter is the world’s first multifunctional find me, find you and let’s exchange platform and that it will only realise its full potential when people start using it primarily to declare to the world “I have Strawberries for Sale!” or “I need strawberries now!” or “I have Conference Tickets for Sale!” or “I need conference tickets now!”.
Conversational platforms (i.e. Blogs and Social Networks) will always struggle to be monetized simply because they are largely passive media activities. Bidding platforms, by their very nature, are easily monetized because they are hot sweaty and vibrant. They are places that thrive on competition and trade. Twitter demonstrates flashes of this activity but realistically this activity happens largely by chance rather than by design.
But doesn’t this petty much sum up the evolution of Twitter to date… A case study in innovation by accident rather than by design.
Today Twitter functions more like the frenzy one associates with a crowd attending a Football match than the frenzy we see on the trading room floor on Wall St or at the local produce market. With Twitter we can guage just how involved the crowd is with the action by monitoring the oohhh’s! and Ahhh’s of those participating in the rituals we associate with the festival of the boot. What we don’t have yet is the level of engagement which inspires trade. Conversations maybe, and perhaps the occassional bid, but not trades.
Posted on August 16, 2011
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