Leo Laporte leaves Twitter for Jaiku

April 6, 2007 By

Leo Laporte just reported he’s leaving Twitter to go to competitor Jaiku instead. Here’s what he posted:

“I’ve asked Ev to delete my Twitter account. I’m concerned about confusion with TWiT. I’m moving to Jaiku: account is ChiefTWiT. CU there!”

and

“I should never have trademarked TWiT. Curse you Ev. Couldn’t you have called this Odeoer or something?”

I’ll follow the details and post more on my Twitter account.

UPDATE: we’re having dinner with Lisa Stone and Chris Carfi and Chris says Leo is the “Twitter quitter.” The reason Leo’s leaving Twitter is significant is because Leo kicked off the Twitter hype by talking about Twitter on his show, TWiT (This Week in Tech) about two weeks before SXSW.

UPDATE2: Jaiku is currently down. So, at least they have the same scalability problems that Twitter had three weeks ago.

UPDATE3: more on Leo’s blog about his decision.

UPDATE4: I’m on Jaiku too now at http://scobleizer.jaiku.com/. Personally I like the simplicity of Twitter better. But that might just be me.

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  • http://www.highvibe.com.au/blog/ David S

    I think these services are a great move forward for the connected minded people… but I wonder, like the Unified Field Theory scientists are trying to crack, I’m guessing whoever creates a UNIFIED MESSAGING THEORY will be onto a winner…

    I mean, skype, messenger, twitter, email etc… “one messenging service to rule them all” ?????

  • http://www.highvibe.com.au/blog/ David S

    I think these services are a great move forward for the connected minded people… but I wonder, like the Unified Field Theory scientists are trying to crack, I’m guessing whoever creates a UNIFIED MESSAGING THEORY will be onto a winner…

    I mean, skype, messenger, twitter, email etc… “one messenging service to rule them all” ?????

  • http://www.techipedia.com Tamar Weinberg

    My post didn’t come out right. Revised -

    From Leo’s blog: “The problem is the name. I wish to heck he’d named it Tweeter, or Tooter, or anything but Twitter. Twitter is so close to TWiT that I’m afraid it’s really confusing.”

    Leo has a lot of issues with names, from podcasts/netcasts to Twitter/TWiT. I’ve been using Twitter since December and I can’t say that the association with TWiT has ever crossed my mind. I think he’s truly in over his head about these naming conventions.

    I tried Jaiku for all of 2 minutes, and unless it catches on (I hope it doesn’t), I’m sticking to TWiTter. (Oops.)

  • http://www.techipedia.com Tamar Weinberg

    My post didn’t come out right. Revised -

    From Leo’s blog: “The problem is the name. I wish to heck he’d named it Tweeter, or Tooter, or anything but Twitter. Twitter is so close to TWiT that I’m afraid it’s really confusing.”

    Leo has a lot of issues with names, from podcasts/netcasts to Twitter/TWiT. I’ve been using Twitter since December and I can’t say that the association with TWiT has ever crossed my mind. I think he’s truly in over his head about these naming conventions.

    I tried Jaiku for all of 2 minutes, and unless it catches on (I hope it doesn’t), I’m sticking to TWiTter. (Oops.)

  • http://www.lojic.com/blog/ Brian Adkins

    Robert, I’m dying to know (and I bet a lot of other people) – how the heck do you deal with 2,700+ friends on twitter? You can’t possibly keep up with them – do you have a reader that scans for keywords, pick some at random? What’s your technique? Inquiring mind(s) want to know.

  • http://www.lojic.com/blog/ Brian Adkins

    Robert, I’m dying to know (and I bet a lot of other people) – how the heck do you deal with 2,700+ friends on twitter? You can’t possibly keep up with them – do you have a reader that scans for keywords, pick some at random? What’s your technique? Inquiring mind(s) want to know.

  • http://www.livedigitally.com/ Jeremy Toeman

    Robert: I think you are getting a little carried away with the “three weeks late” comments to that guy Martin. The necessary reality check here is this: the “claimed” 100K users at Twitter is most certainly an accomplishment for a startup, and hats off to them for it. But it is utterly meaningless in the grand scheme of things.

    If this market is really going to be huge (doubtful), then being a month “late” but a lot better is perfectly fine. The “update pseudo-friends about what I’m having for lunch” bus is still in the station…

  • http://www.livedigitally.com Jeremy Toeman

    Robert: I think you are getting a little carried away with the “three weeks late” comments to that guy Martin. The necessary reality check here is this: the “claimed” 100K users at Twitter is most certainly an accomplishment for a startup, and hats off to them for it. But it is utterly meaningless in the grand scheme of things.

    If this market is really going to be huge (doubtful), then being a month “late” but a lot better is perfectly fine. The “update pseudo-friends about what I’m having for lunch” bus is still in the station…

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  • Bob

    I’m pissed and sick of Leo abusing his power to sway the masses when he clearly is getting paid to plug these start-ups. He plugged twitter a dozen times and now abandons it? WTF?! Screw him… he can have fun by himself in Jaikuland. Twitter Rocks, Jaiku sucks!

  • Bob

    I’m pissed and sick of Leo abusing his power to sway the masses when he clearly is getting paid to plug these start-ups. He plugged twitter a dozen times and now abandons it? WTF?! Screw him… he can have fun by himself in Jaikuland. Twitter Rocks, Jaiku sucks!

  • Bob

    P.S. I’m sick of all of you so called “A Listers” get a freakin’ life and get over yourselves already

  • Bob

    P.S. I’m sick of all of you so called “A Listers” get a freakin’ life and get over yourselves already

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  • Christopher Coulter

    ‘discussion nodes’….

    Hahha, too rich, gotta love the buzzwording…

  • Christopher Coulter

    ‘discussion nodes’….

    Hahha, too rich, gotta love the buzzwording…

  • http://www.videosticky.com/ Rodney Rumford

    I heard Leo on the radio this weekend talking about twitter and jaiku. It was interesting to hear his thoughts on the 2 services (he likes them both). But i think the real reason he left was confusion about TWIT and twitter being too similar in names and confusion arising.

    i have to agree with is perspective. his brand was having some confusion applied to it due to the name similarities… i think he actually said he was suggested by legal counsel to send twitter a cease and decist. but he said he would not do that, he likes Evan. ;)

    Rodney Rumford

  • http://www.videosticky.com Rodney Rumford

    I heard Leo on the radio this weekend talking about twitter and jaiku. It was interesting to hear his thoughts on the 2 services (he likes them both). But i think the real reason he left was confusion about TWIT and twitter being too similar in names and confusion arising.

    i have to agree with is perspective. his brand was having some confusion applied to it due to the name similarities… i think he actually said he was suggested by legal counsel to send twitter a cease and decist. but he said he would not do that, he likes Evan. ;)

    Rodney Rumford

  • http://www.egorcast.com/ Alexander Muse

    We were thinking about the same thing the other day. Why choose between Twitter and Jaiku (and the next moblogging player to enter the space). What if you could ‘twitter’ to any or all moblogging platform? We brought the issue up at the office and the guys came up with EgorCast. The idea is to mashup Jott’s voice to text service with Twitter and Jaiku.

    Jott allows users to dial a predetermined number and record a 15 second message. Jott then transcribes the message and emails the transcription to your phone or email account. EgorCast provides a gateway between the messages from Jott and social mo-blogging services such as Twitter and Jaiku (or both if you want). EgorCast will also send your messages to your WordPress blog with a specific category or tag. So you don’t need to pick…

  • http://www.egorcast.com Alexander Muse

    We were thinking about the same thing the other day. Why choose between Twitter and Jaiku (and the next moblogging player to enter the space). What if you could ‘twitter’ to any or all moblogging platform? We brought the issue up at the office and the guys came up with EgorCast. The idea is to mashup Jott’s voice to text service with Twitter and Jaiku.

    Jott allows users to dial a predetermined number and record a 15 second message. Jott then transcribes the message and emails the transcription to your phone or email account. EgorCast provides a gateway between the messages from Jott and social mo-blogging services such as Twitter and Jaiku (or both if you want). EgorCast will also send your messages to your WordPress blog with a specific category or tag. So you don’t need to pick…

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  • http://mrontemp.blogspot.com/ Ontario Emperor

    Coincidentally, I just requsted a Jaiku account. I’m hoping that I can use my Google login to access Jaiku; otherwise, I may wait until Google login support is available. I just want to give it a whirl and see what happens.

    Apparently there’s an update to this story that I still have to find. http://twitter.com/leolaporte is active.

  • http://mrontemp.blogspot.com/ Ontario Emperor

    Coincidentally, I just requsted a Jaiku account. I’m hoping that I can use my Google login to access Jaiku; otherwise, I may wait until Google login support is available. I just want to give it a whirl and see what happens.

    Apparently there’s an update to this story that I still have to find. http://twitter.com/leolaporte is active.

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  • http://www.freewebs.com/stocktonunderground Les Stockton

    I’ve tried and tried and cannot get a jaiku account invitation.
    Tell me again, why Jaiku is going to be better than Twitter? How much better can it be if you can’t get on to use it?

  • http://www.freewebs.com/stocktonunderground Les Stockton

    I’ve tried and tried and cannot get a jaiku account invitation.
    Tell me again, why Jaiku is going to be better than Twitter? How much better can it be if you can’t get on to use it?

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