I’ve been thinking about Twitter (and other social networks, for that matter) in relation to instant messaging. With networks like Twitter, are instant messaging clients necessary?

Truly dynamic form

When you have a conversation with an instant messaging client, such as AIM or MSN, it is usually viewable by two people. It is passed through the server of whatever client you are using (unless you are directly connected, but that’s a different story). Let’s compare that to something like Twitter.

With Twitter, everyone can view your conversations. You have the option of using a DM (direct message) if you want to keep things private, but I’m pretty sure that open conversation is a lot more popular. You have to understand how truly dynamic this is. When talking on Twitter, a developer can do just about anything with your conversation. They can take that conversation and use it to generate statistics, data, or information. I’m working on a Twitter web application of my own, so I have been doing a little of stuff like this.

It’s not ‘instant’, but it’s not email

I wouldn’t exactly classify Twitter as ‘instant messaging’. Twitter doesn’t notify you when you have an @reply. This is probably the only thing that would keep it from being ‘instant’. However, there is a slight delay that comes with using a third-party Twitter client.

I still think that Twitter has the potential of becoming a popular alternative to instant messaging. It has many of the qualities of instant messaging (despite it being not completely instant) and many qualities of email (if someone isn’t online, you can still send a message). There are a few problems, though.

What about privacy?

As I mentioned earlier, Twitter isn’t the best place when it comes to privacy. Tweets can be viewed by the public (or, if you have privacy settings), only people that you follow. Many conversations on IM or email are private – they just wouldn’t happen on Twitter. The DM function isn’t really any different from using email or IM, so I don’t know how well that will do.

This is one of my really abstract posts. I’m just thinking in a blog post. What I just wrote might make absolutely no sense to you. Or, as I hope, it could start to get you thinking about what I’m thinking about. Either way, leave a comment and tell me what you think. :)

Tags: Instant Messaging, Social Networks, Twitter