To many, Twitter is something to make fun of. Little messages - called tweets - shoot to and fro from airhead to airhead, frothy and negligible. Superficial, narcissistic skating. Just another time-waster in a media world voracious of time.
But the last year has brought an explosion in user traffic - monthly minutes of use grew 37-fold from April 2008 through May 2009 - and a growing role in disseminating news and organizing social and protest movements, from the streets of Tehran to a swimming pool in Huntingdon Valley.
True, only 40 percent of first-timers become habitual visitors - the rest are "Twitter quitters." And nobody seems to know how to make money with it - yet. When Twitter cofounder Biz Stone appeared on Comedy Central's Colbert Report in April, Stephen Colbert quipped, "I assume that 'Biz' in Biz Stone does not stand for 'business model.' "
Still, recent events suggest that Twitter has gone from laughable to respectable.
"This could be a moment when more people see they should take Twitter more seriously," says Dan Frommer, senior editor of Silicon Alley Insider, "that it can play an important role in major events, that when something big happens and you need to message the public instantly, Twitter lets you do that."
A social-networking service, Twitter allows users to post short (140 characters max) tweets on what they're doing, thinking, eating, etc. It's not exactly "on the Web" - more than three-quarters of Twitter's traffic comes across BlackBerrys, iPods, and other devices, according to twitstat.com. In theory, Twitter can come in handy whenever you need to speed a short message to the world. And a lot of people are finding that irresistible.
Like former Alaska Gov. and GOP vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who tweeted on July 21: "Riding 2 Kenai;writing last Govs speech on way;country music streaming & countryside screaming inspiration 4 pro-developmnt + pro-enviro msg."
And SenArlenSpecter: "will vote to confirm Judge Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, and urge colleagues to do the same".
Between 18 million and 20 million people are now dedicated Twitter users in the United States, with more than 32 million worldwide, according to comScore, a tracking service. In April and May, Twitter saw more unique visitors than the sites of the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times.
But it's Twitter's role in international politics that has drawn the most attention of late. In the Middle East from Dubai to Egypt to Syria, Twitter-inspired protests have embarrassed governments and inspired crackdowns.
In early June, fearing unrest for the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing, the Chinese government blocked Twitter and other networking sites. Many Twitterers found end-arounds, but the very attempt at blockade suggests Twitter is a totalitarian's nightmare: a people's self-broadcaster, open to the world.
More recently, when Twitter-leaked photos of bloody riots from Xinjiang province began to appear on the Web, China's government again tried to muffle Twitter. But that's hard to do. Twitterers are using "piggyback" programs such as iTweet.net, which let you use Twitter without actually going to its Web site.
A "Twitter revolution" was declared during the recent elections in Iran, when Iranians used it to track the results and their aftermath. Tweeters such as Persiankiwi - who wrote, "NOTE to HACKERS. . . pls try to hack all iran gov wesites. very difficult for us" - and IranRiggedElect posted updates, coordinated flash mobs (spontaneous gatherings organized via networking media), and directed attention to protest videos they posted on YouTube.
Mir Hossein Mousavi, the leading opposition candidate, used Twitter to marshal and solidify support. Authorities slowly realized Twitter was a back channel for alternative info, and they tried to block it. Tweeters appealed abroad for "proxy servers," which let them reach the Web anonymously and keep channels open. In fact, when Twitter wanted an hour of downtime on June 16, the U.S. State Department asked it and similar sites to stay up so Iranians could communicate.
Craig Stoltz, proprietor of the Web site Web 2.0 Really? and a Web consultant, thinks Twitter's role in the Iranian elections "might change some minds . . . it could solidify its potential to contribute to serious public events."
Twitter power also emerged during the Michael Jackson story. On June 25, Twitter users were broadcasting news of the pop star's passing well before mainstream media could confirm it. So many posted Jackson messages - more than 100,000 an hour at the height - that Twitter stopped dead in its tweets.
It happened again on July 6, when millions shared impressions of the Jackson memorial service at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. For a while that night, Twitter ran its fetching graphic of the famous "Fail Whale," a happy Moby-Dick borne aloft by tweeting birdies, with an apology and a "try again later."
Twitter also is taking hold as a global round table for chorus, churn, chatter, and debate. Traffic spiked, for example, over South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's affair and the killing of football star Steve McNair. When two subway trains collided in Washington on June 23, Twitter users sent screen-captures of TV news reports throughout the Web.
The service has proved to be just as potent in broadcasting local events. The best-known example is still US Airways Flight 1549's Hudson River landing on Jan. 15. Within 20 minutes, Janis Krums not only sent a tweet - "There's a plane in the Hudson. I'm on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy." - but also took a picture on his iPhone and posted it to Twitter, and thence to the world, one of the first photos available of the rescue.
When the Valley Swim Club of Huntingdon Valley rescinded the membership of a day camp whose children, mostly African American and Hispanic, reported hearing racial remarks on a Jun 29 visit to the pool, that story, and outrage, spread like wildfire, thanks in part to the tweeting of Carmen Dixon, proprietor of a Web site named All About Race. And Twitter played a role in organizing a protest July 9.
Many towns and local groups have discovered that Twitter is good for more than shouting "Emergency!" From hospitals to sewing circles, local institutions are using Twitter as community glue. Police and fire departments use Twitter as a combination scanner and blotter, keeping citizens informed of pursuits, road closures, and suspect descriptions. The Philadelphia Police Department got started last month. A recent tweet is very practical: "Philadelphia Police Tipline. Any Tip. Any Time. (215) 686-TIPS."
The Inquirer and many other media outlets, as well as most sports teams, are on Twitter, as are city government (address: twitter.com/PhiladelphiaGov), the zoo, weather, and employment sites (but not yet the Fire Department), as well as nonprofits, churches, social-service organizations, and clubs.
To be sure, there are questions about whether Twitter can sustain such growth - or whether it'll prove to be just another Internet fad. According to Nielsen Co., about 40 percent of first-time visitors continue to use the site. But growth is slowing: From April to June, it was up only 7 percent, Nielsen says.
And can it make money? News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch told TheStreet.com that Twitter "is an amazing phenomenon but I have no idea how they can monetize it." On its own since 2006, Twitter Inc. is thought to be close to using up the cash on hand. Its founders have been tight-lipped about profit schemes; recently leaked documents allude to vague - and to some in the business world, disappointing - plans for turning all this traffic into cash.
Still, if Twitter keeps adding about 10 million new users a month, it could have 50 million before long. According to Alexa.com, a Web-traffic service, Twitter ranks as the 13th most-visited site in the United States, just behind AOL and just ahead of Amazon.com, and is 15th worldwide.
Whether they use it as world mini-blog or global round table, Twitter users are showing the power of a quick-hit network in which millions can send info to millions of others in seconds, no matter where they are. Twitter may have a silly name, but it may just have grown up.