It all started with a “stupid” idea and a message about pinot noir.
Two of the founders of Twitter Inc., Evan Williams and Biz Stone, talked about how the micro-blogging service began, the challenges it faced and an eventual potential IPO, at Startup School, an event organized by Y Combinator held at the University of California-Berkeley on Saturday.
Even a few years ago the word “blog” inspired that peculiar mix of derision and dismissal that seems to haunt new media innovations long after they’re proven. A blogger was a lonely, pajama-clad person in a dark room, typing out banal musings he mistook for interesting ones, to be read by a handful of friends or strangers if they were read at all.
Tragic events unfolded yesterday as a group of British skiers became separated from two of their party in the Swiss resort of Verbier. The rescue operation took on a global perspective when members of the party–a group of U.K. technology entrepreneurs–used the microblogging site Twitter in trying to locate the missing skiers.
You’ve probably heard how much the microblogging service Twitter can help your business, or that being on social-networking site Facebook can boost your company’s profile. But what you might not have considered is the potential danger in over-relying on these start-ups that could go out of business, get bought out, or close your account if you aren’t familiar with their Terms of Service.
It appears that micro-blogging service Twitter has removed the option to delete a “tweet” once it’s been published, making the service a haven for digital litter–the trail of information about you or things you’ve said that perhaps you shouldn’t leave lying around the Web.
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