Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Why Twitter is not like CB Radio

There's been some discussion about whether Twitter is the CB Radio of this decade -- I don't agree, for the following reasons:
  • * CB radio required specific equipment. Twitter can be accessed by a number of different ways, desktop and mobile, dedicated clients and the Internet. You don't need to purchase special equipment to use Twitter.
  • CB radios were used in cars, primarily by truckers and drivers. Twitter can be used anywhere by anyone.
  • CB radio conversations took place in real-time only. Twitter can be real-time but also lets people comment when they want to. You can even schedule tweets to hit at a later time.
  • While CB radio captured society's attention -- spawning top 40 songs, TV shows and movies (Smokey & Bandit) but quickly seemed to have a limit of users. Twitter has quickly captured the media's attention, but the growth of the Twitter userbase seems to be accelerating.
  • CB radio conversations frequently discussed road conditions. Twitter conversations cover business and personal and everything in between.

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