Reflecting on Ben’s latest post on Twitter and their obsession with live…  One year ago Twitter committed to a “live” strategy; management wrote in a letter to shareholders:

We’re focused now on what Twitter does best: live. Twitter is live: live commentary, live connections, live conversations. Whether it’s breaking news, entertainment, sports, or everyday topics, hearing about and watching a live event unfold is the fastest way to understand the power of Twitter. Twitter has always been considered a “second screen” for what’s happening in the world and we believe we can become the first screen for everything that’s happening now. And by doing so, we believe we can build the planet’s largest daily connected audience. A connected audience is one that watches together, and can talk with one another in real-time. It’s what Twitter has provided for close to 10 years, and it’s what we will continue to drive in the future.

For me Twitter isn’t about live. And if it was, they’d need a much clearer interface to surface and filter live events. The noise to signal ratio is too off the charts for an enjoyable live experience on Twitter. 

For me Twitter is about moments that the user chooses to broadcast and the audience chooses to consume on their time. We time-shift “live” to best fit our day. Adam Bain gave me the same insight over lunch sometime ago. That isn’t a live strategy – its a capture, share, curate strategy… the stream is where my moments live.

Twitter remains my go-to social platform. But its stagnating. The genius of the original product idea is close to being exhausted. So what will Twitter do next?