The hype about that micro blogging service
Maryam said if I ever mention ______ again in her presence she’d kill me, so I won’t. But what have I learned from watching 1,000 people talking with me?
That that isn’t the point.
I’m fascinated that so many people hate the service that won’t be named. They contribute more to the hype than anything else. After all, the human brain is pretty good at routing around bulls**t, but not around criticism.
Criticism catches our attention, makes us pay attention.
I think that if marketers were smart they wouldn’t be doing “pay per post” but, rather, they’d do “pay to hate” services.
Hey, that gives me an idea, I’ll write a ______ post linking to the first three people who write on their blogs that my videos suck. Just post your URLs here in the comments. :-)
Powered By 
March 14th, 2007 at 4:38 pm
Just started this blog yesterday as a birthday present to myself and was looking for readers…love the show but will gladly do a “pay to hate” post for traffic! :)
March 14th, 2007 at 4:38 pm
I wish I had that luxury a week or two ago… Thank Maryam for me please ;-)
http://www.brethorsting.com/uidesign/2007/03/scobles_videos_suck.html
March 14th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
Aaron and Kevin, you on the service that shall not be named? What’s your names?
March 14th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
[...] I’m happy to hear that Maryam has banned Robert from discussing Twitter. This is a relief. I had gotten into the habit of shift-deleting Scoble posts after a couple weeks [...]
March 14th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
Absolutely not, I refuse to use Twitter.
March 14th, 2007 at 4:41 pm
Damn you Aaron, you named the service that shall not be named in Maryam’s presence! You’ve threatened the Gods. May she be merciful to your soul. :-)
March 14th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
Also, I should point out that I really don’t hate you :)
March 14th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
Ahh, disclosure! Heheh.
March 14th, 2007 at 4:48 pm
You’re the Twitter mascot, Robert. She can’t ban you. Like you said on Twitter, it’s definitely the pregnancy ;)
March 14th, 2007 at 4:51 pm
Tamar: she threatened to make me sleep on the couch if I mentioned that service again in her presence. She has power over me. :-)
March 14th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
Good luck to you then.
P.S. The couch doesn’t seem too bad. I’d guess it’s closer to the computwitter, isn’t it? ;)
March 14th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
Clearly Maryam is the brains in the Scoble family :-)
March 14th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
I am not a fan of the not to be mentioned service, I have a busy life and more “noise” doesn’t help my productivity.
Nice to see you back Robert, did I see somewhere you are attending VON, if so will see you there
March 14th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
http://christianburns.wordpress.com/2007/03/14/castfire-looks-cool/
Your video sucks
March 14th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
Strangely enough my wife has had the same reaction and decided if Twitter wakes her up again while sleeping in she will flush my phone! (Note to self need to ensure I wake up before Twitter)
March 14th, 2007 at 5:18 pm
Love/hate is a well known seller :-)
As Kathy Sierra would say (well, sort of), you’re not in trouble when people talk crap about you. You’re in trouble when people simply do NOT talk about you at all.
March 14th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
new code name: warble or should I say warblr. I think it’s a pointless service. Is it really that important what you’re doing through the day? I can see it being useful for sites who have live coverage. Or maybe a link blog with comments but chances are you don’t have a story to link to on hand.
I dunno…maybe it’s cool for older people to know every little move you make? Governments should be proud that people are effectively choosing to join survailance networks…who needs privacy anyway hahah ;)
Sounds like it could be popular among teens but I’m a bit surprised at the popularity in the older generation.
March 14th, 2007 at 5:36 pm
For Maryam… Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, and finally, TWITTER!
March 14th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
You know… if She Who Must Be Obeyed finds your link blog with any of those T words I’d hate to see the plate of eggplant she sneaks you… :)
BTW, thanks for adding me to your cast o’ thousands the other day. Appreciated.
AND… I’ll be in Long Beach March 30 - April 4. Any chance of a get together? Long shot… I know.
March 14th, 2007 at 6:41 pm
Heheheh, sorry, was hoping someone would bad mouth me for forgetting to put my blog URL and generate some hate traffic of my own. :)
astartupaday.wordpress.com
It’s a creative challenge to myself to come up with a new idea for a startup each day, inspired by the fantastic work that Steve Poland is doing over on http://www.techquilashots.com and the stuff going on at Cambrian House.
March 14th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
Rob: you’re sleeping on the couch! Gwhiz: the eggplant works too! :-)
March 14th, 2007 at 6:50 pm
gwhiz: sorry, I’m not in Long Beach then.
March 14th, 2007 at 6:56 pm
Uses for ________ :
1) Letting your social circle know where you’re going? “We’re hanging out at XXX this Friday…”
2) Reporting even little events as they happen.
“Bad traffic accident on the ##. Find another route.” “It’s a Boy!!” “Dad just hit a hole in one!!” “Derek Jeter just walked in to our restaurant…”
3) Making it truly possible to liveblog. Rather than wait until after some event happens to read someone’s liveblog - we can see it happen in real time.
_______ is almost the same as Facebook’s “status” feature.
We are even integrating it into our social media public relations plans for select clients. (One of them wants to test using it to send coupons to customers phones - “show us the coupon and get…”)
March 14th, 2007 at 7:10 pm
I’ve written repeatedly about how Twitter sucks, does that count?
http://neomeme.wordpress.com/2007/03/12/twitter-is-like-totally-web-05lol/
And I would definitely disagree with you. One mention about how Twitter is awesome from the likes of you or Steve Rubel is worth more than 1,000 hate posts from little guys like me. Notice that most of the Twitter-hate is not coming from A-list bloggers- you guys all love it, because you have thousands of adoring fans(would they be called Twits?) In conclusion, your opinions suck :)
March 14th, 2007 at 7:32 pm
I tried the not to be mentioned service and decided to stop because it was detracting from my core ability to do other things effectively. Maybe I’ll go back in the future when more people are on it??
I must disagree with your “pay to hate” service. That’s similar to Mark Cuban’s “there’s no such thing as bad PR.” If people are hearing about a product or service for the first time, they will associate the negativity of criticism with the product and they will likely form a negative impression of the product. That goes double if it is from a source that they trust. Opposite works too. So if all the heavy hitters were bashing twitter all weekend, I have a feeling there wouldn’t be as much band-wagoning. In the end, it will take a lot to overcome that negativity if the impression is encoded. So I would not sign up with the “pay for hate” service.
March 14th, 2007 at 7:50 pm
@23 And amazingly we’ve been able to do that with IM and Text Messaging for some time now.
March 14th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
The solution? Enter 77.
Just another ‘cult of personality’ central service, more fun for the connected party people or group events, over much real world use.
March 14th, 2007 at 7:52 pm
@23.. I don’t know about you, but I prefer a little more depth from reading blogs than 160 characters at a time.
March 14th, 2007 at 8:14 pm
@LayZ - 140 characters. 180? I wish! Think how much more I could say!
@Robert - couch works, as long as it’s the red one.
@Ilya - I am calling them Twats: http://lagesse.org/index.php/2007/03/14/twitter-lingo/
Rob
March 14th, 2007 at 9:00 pm
Okay, you asked for it: Your Videos Suck
I hope your happy now. heheh
http://fogview.com
From a “follower” and not a “friend” :-(
http://twitter.com/fogview
March 14th, 2007 at 9:36 pm
[...] whatever you do, DO NOT check out Robert Scoble’s Scoble Show, especially not this episode featuring the founder of Castfire. Or this one about [...]
March 14th, 2007 at 9:59 pm
I’m being contrary:
1)Maryam rules! Hope the couch is comfy.
2)Your videos don’t suck!
3)The T-word doesn’t suck either, but I loved it for its immediacy at the event rather more than its sanity. I don’t know that I could keep it up and have a day job. :)
4) there’s enough hate in the world without having to pay for it.
5) I see a future that combines the T-word with the ZeFrank approach. 5 second video real-time from people.
March 15th, 2007 at 2:13 am
The service that shall not be named is pretty cool.
Your wife is right Robert.
I’m not married but my girl told me she’ll format my drives if I don’t remove the sms notive service :)
March 15th, 2007 at 2:24 am
[...] sure I’m sold on the whole Twitter thing, but I’m continually hearing all the “cool kids” raving on about it, so I thought I’d give it a [...]
March 15th, 2007 at 5:32 am
[...] why I’m envious of Twitter. In the course of a few months they’ve gone from being a darling of the blogging community to the nemesis of all things good and [...]
March 15th, 2007 at 7:24 am
Phew…at least Maryam’s threats indicate that you don’t don’t have an equity stake in the company. The frequency of posts about the topic was beginning to make me think that you did. :)
mobile cell phone providers should be frothing over this but I’m also interested in seeing what happens when the spammer crowd finds ways to join in on multiple devices…
March 15th, 2007 at 8:21 am
Everyone is going Tiwtter mad!
March 15th, 2007 at 9:05 am
@29. Then say it on your blog :-)
As those that “don’t get it” being “twats”. clever. But we get it. Group text messaging with history. With the ability of spammers to chime in. What am I missing?
March 15th, 2007 at 9:46 am
>forsalebylocals: I don’t have equity in any company except for Microsoft and PodTech. I will disclose anytime that ever changes.
I’m not being paid by any company other than PodTech and I will also disclose anytime that changes.
March 15th, 2007 at 9:52 am
#38: things I like about Twitter? You’re not on it.
Also, spammers? Demonstrates you don’t use it. If one shows up I simply “unfriend” that account.
March 15th, 2007 at 10:57 am
I am with Dave Winer on this one. I don’t ‘get’ twitter. But anything that stirs up so much of passionate arguments - pro and anti- shouldn’t be discounted that easily.
But something i disagree on my own is Robert’s hype about twitter.
March 15th, 2007 at 10:57 am
[...] and simple, and its indicators are all present with Twitter-love: The Constantly Writing About It (check), the Rushing to Institutionalize It (check), the Endless Namedropping Of It (check, ad nauseum). I [...]
March 15th, 2007 at 11:38 am
[...] work Robert: The hype about that micro blogging service but next time call it the hyped micro blogging service. Robert Scoble did a nice experiment with [...]
March 15th, 2007 at 11:39 am
@40 just because you “unfriend” a spammer doesn’t mean spammers aren’t on it. What’s the difference between that and marking an unwanted email as junk mail? Doesn’t mean I’m not getting spam.
I was on it. No longer on it. I didn’t find my life was being “enriched” and I found it hard to hang out with “stars”
March 15th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
Robert, I tell marketers this all the time - they need more controversy. They need to learn how to leak information properly. Sometimes a screenshot is worth more than a blog post, because until all the information about the product is revealed, people are busy speculating, discussing and debating.
But most marketers don’t get this. They want everything in a nice tidy press release that’s been proofed by 15 executives and revised at least 20 times. Press releases no longer serve their purpose, in my opinion. 99% of them are DOA. You can instantly tell if a magazine, newspaper or blog article was pulled from a press release - because they’re so damn bland, and usually avoid any kind of critical discourse.
March 15th, 2007 at 9:45 pm
[...] used for good? Like blogging it can be used for many different things. Looking at some comments on Robert’s post where his wife has banned him from talking about Twitter Jim Johnson lists a few “uses”, which are promptly shot down, but do raise some practical [...]
March 16th, 2007 at 2:13 am
Twitter… twit… twat
March 16th, 2007 at 10:48 am
[...] all the buzz over Twitter, I decided to create an account — if for nothing more than to stake out my claim to my [...]
March 16th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
[...] Dave has an excellent piece on The Future of Twitter on his Scripting News site, and Scoble also has a few interesting things to say about how the Twitter haters are feeding the publicity. [...]
March 17th, 2007 at 1:33 am
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March 17th, 2007 at 2:40 am
[...] has taken the blogosphere by storm and everyone seems to be at it (Scoble [...]
March 17th, 2007 at 9:51 am
[...] Slow down, people! Some people, including me, think maybe you’re all taking this way too seriously. [...]
March 22nd, 2007 at 5:24 am
very nice blog
March 27th, 2007 at 4:01 am
Blog of directtv
April 8th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
[...] are, but I would like to stand up for the service in the face of the multitude of naysayers and hype machines that appear hell-bent on taking it down before understanding why it has become so popular in the [...]
April 25th, 2007 at 3:40 am
[...] Please excuse the sketchy title but I just need to get the twisted humor out there… A little web application called Twitter seems to be all the hype these days, at least among the tech crowd. Previously called Twttr, it has been around the greater part of a year but only recently started picking up popularity as its name was changed to Twitter (which was a smart move, calling it ‘Twatter’ was just too easy a joke) and people started writing about it. [...]
September 12th, 2007 at 9:43 am
There’s another new one too at blabto.com