Some people who study technology aren't sure Twitter will endure.
"Frankly, I think a lot of twittering is somewhat faddish, whereas I never thought Facebook was. ... People I interviewed and surveyed would talk of serious feeling of deprivation without Facebook and I've hardly heard anyone say that about twitter," Zeynep Tufekci, an assistant professor who teaches the sociology of technology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, wrote in an e-mail. "Will people Twitter five years from now? Perhaps, but I would not be surprised if they did not, or at least as much."
But Twitter has grown so fast, it must be relevant at some level. It has touched a nerve.
"I cannot envision that this tool is just a fad; it's far too powerful and still has so much potential," said Tracy Gosson, a Twitterer and president of Sagesse, a Baltimore marketing firm. "If they continue to innovate, I would put it close to the evolution level of Google. My elevator pitch for Twitter is that that Facebook keeps you in touch with people you know. Twitter connects you with people you didn't know you needed to know."
"This real-time ability to understand what is happening at the moment, it's a sea change," said Jeff Pulver, a technology entrepreneur who has been involved in Internet telephony. "This is not just geeks. This is decidedly ungeek."
Pulver is working to organize a conference about Twitter at an off-Broadway theater in New York in June where he hopes to assemble 140 "characters" - meaning people - to discuss Twitter's influence and possibilities.
He said he'd love to get Aniston there.
