Why Twitter Hasn't Cracked the Teen Market

I started this post back in February 2008 and left it for a while. I was never quite able to finish it -- and it didn't seem overly important. But in light of the recent problems with Twitter and the emergence of the shiny new Plurk, I thought I would resurrect this post and look again at the future, potential and challenges for services such as Twitter, Plurk, Jaiku and Pownce.

appeals to Generation Y. And it seems to be something that is also tweaking the ears of an expectant Twitter community. After the recent outage furore and poor communication all round, perhaps the adults in the Twitter community are waking up to a new level of expectation and maturity -- technology as service. And this may be the very reason that Plurk (or its successor) wins out long term. It is not about the technology or even the utility. It's about the service and the experience -- something the kids got long ago.