Twitter has the potential of breaking into the mainstream this year. A lot of what’s going on around Twitter is not dissimilar to the earlier days of blogging; we’re seeing evangelists, some basic mainstream adoptions, and even some tracking services. Sites like Tweeterboard and Twitterposter are providing basic Twitter statistics in a similar (although far more polished) way to Technorati and Daypop back in 2003.
A new service provided by Brad Kellett of Pantsland fame allows you to track exactly how frequently you are using Twitter.
Twitter Stats offers a key range of (as the name suggests) Twitter statistics based on username. My stats below demonstrate the basics. The service is a little slow at this stage (up to 5 minutes to generate the stats) and the graphics are basic, but for Twitter users looking for some statistics it’s a helpful service.
IMHO I think twitstat.com is ace
Specialized search engines are also already available, for example http://terraminds.com/twitter/ and http://www.davi....com/tweetscan/ (disclosure: I’m associated with the former)
Looks like I’m missing something, I’ll Check it out! Thanks for sharing this information.
Nhick
http://www.itrush.com
If twitter takes off, I’ll add it to the list of things (to accompany Arctic Monkeys) I don’t understand why they are popular.
Hmm… good
I’m with W00T (#3)…I just don’t understand why this is useful, let alone the next big idea. Maybe I’m just missing something. Can someone please tell us why you use Twitter, and why most people can’t live without the service?
Am I misreading the graph or do you post between 500-700 tweets per day? Surely something is wrong here.
Dangit, that brazen hussy bronwen is ahead of me! Must grind harder…
nice, although rather primitive still. It would be interesting to know what timezone they are using to generate the stats / hour ?
@bob : I understand that they create their stats on the TOTAL count of twits. So max number of twits here has occurred on Wednesdays, and usually at 3am.
A mention of the original script would be nice: http://dcortesi.../twitter-stats/
ah yes! the twitter posts have begun
http://alisaleo...o-there-is.html
EricaJoy
apologies, although it is on the main link page
Rodrigo, true, primitive, but at least its a start, very much like the early days of blogging
As useless as Twitter itself…
Duncan, I understand that you might or might be not right about twitter hitting mainstream. We’ve seen many more ‘useless-at-first-look’ services that are a hit now (myspace for one). But seriously – who needs stats for his tweets? It’s not like tweeting is making him any money – is it? Seriously TC guys, I admire you a lot – you’re one of two sources I read daily (techmeme being the other, not a source really) – but you sometimes just write about garbage, when there are tons of other usefull servives to cover.
How is Twitter gaining so much of publicity??:??
Other than the masses of self-absorbed Gen Yers that actually think everyone cares about their every thought or activity, who uses twitter and for what redeeming purpose?
Just another “look at me” Web 2.0 application that provides a broad and annoying forum for people looking for lives.
WOW
oooohhhh really! graphing your twittering may be the only thing dumber than doing it!
lot of twitter haters out there… Stop hating, it is time to embrace
Just would like to see someone step up and actually provide a compelling reason why twitter is a valuable application beyond the self-absorbed………still waiting.
@joe : “Other than the masses of self-absorbed Gen Yers that actually think everyone cares about their every thought or activity, who uses twitter and for what redeeming purpose?”
Um, well, the masturbatory usage of Twitter by Gen Yers was indeed the first early usage of Twitter (catalogued ever so nicely on http://www.metacanary.com)
BUT, the usage has definitely shifted as there is a THRIVING community of marketers and communications professionals using Twitter as an actual communication tool (thanks in large part to the likes of Jeremiah Owyang)
Twitter adoption musings here: http://alisaleo...o-there-is.html
Cheers
Twitter’s gonna take off big time in 2008.
So will be Wojai, coming 2008 — to China.
Interesting post, but it just reminds me why I took the time to write about why I think Twitter is a waste of time
Now we have stats to tell us how many people have actually bothered to read that I was brushing my teeth at 8am this morning.
So the self-absorbed like to hear about the other self-absorbed and people trying to make a dime would love to have consumers care enough to want to get their tweets…. My god, anyone taking tweets of any kind from someone trying to make coin is a marketer’s wet dream…but a minority I surely hope!
I still don’t get Twitter but I’m not a 20 something.
It is amazing how 10-12 companies seem to keep getting repeat coverage on TechCrunch. How do you guys choose the companies you decide to cover? Please take this as constructive feedback: I’m getting tired of reading about these same companies over, and over, and over.
Twitter has the potential to create a whole new way of creating and reading content online. I better jump on now before it goes super viral.
What percentage of twitter users read techcrunch?
I’d be stunned if it’s below 75%
I have yet to find anyone outside of the digerati community that has even heard of twitter, let alone used it.
The great thing about sites like Twitter; it shows that there is a place for products that have no use but aren’t useless. I am excited about twitter as much more than micro-blogging. I think this year people will use it for much more.
KUDOS to Twitter for legitimizing the voyeuristic, stalker-y tendencies of some internet users (those who follow other twitter feeds) and simultaneously capitalizing on the narcissistic natures of others (those who twitter). But at the end of the day, it’s just people blogging sentences. Plain and simple. What is even worse, is that most of the time it’s stuff like, “I had coffee at Starbucks. The hippie girl at the counter had a nose ring”.
Um, okay.
But I guess if someone on TechCrunch tells ya it’s genius…then they must be right.
this stuff is crap. Almost as lame as housing map craze.
I’m 40, and I use Twitter. Maybe I’m even a Twitterholic — at least that’s the way some of the posts make me, like I’m making an important public acknowledgment of some deficiency.
If people just used it for the basic “what are you doing?” report, it would be useless. But I’ve read many blogs and learned about many people that I wouldn’t know about otherwise; I’ve become closer to a whole group of acquaintances who I probably wouldn’t have got to know very well; learned about parties, causes, and calamities that I might not have heard about otherwise; and shared more of myself with others than I would be motivated to share through blogs (which for me have been primarily professional, not personal, vehicles of communication.)
Great – a tool for people to feed their Twitter addictions! LOL.
33Paula: But what about when you reach a plateau, you have all the friends you can handle, the blogs you can read, and calamities you can cry for? OK, so they start injecting advertising after that in order to get the usage numbers up again. Then what?
I see lots of people posting links to their “musings” about Twitter, but nobody actually says anything about it. They use it, but I’m skeptical that there’s any content involved.
You like twitter because it reinforces the belief that you are important and that your every action is relevant. That’s all.
Just remember. Time spent twittering is time you could have actually spent living.
This is garbage. Twitter solves no problem, nor is it a kiler app. It’s some bullshit some nerd thought up in his bedroom, and his nerdy friends (i.e. Arrington) push it on their blogs.
*killer
Two words: Who cares?
I use Twitter somewhat, but graphing my usage has got to the the biggest waste of time I’ve ever heard of.
I guess the real question is what benefit do I (or does anyone), get from graphing an individuals Twitter usage?
I’ve never graphed my email usage by time, I don’t feel a reall loss for not having done so.
if you have to graph how often you’re using it, I’d say the answer is clear (i.e. too much)
For those who think Twitter is a waste of time – think twice:
Twitter is truly becoming a business tool
That is one lame example! Can no one do better to show real value in Twitter?