Twitter User Numbers
Image courtesy
Perhaps this explains why Twitter service has been so intermittent over the last few months. I was scratching around for some data on Twitter user numbers the other day and realised that there's somewhat of a paucity of information. But I did find some interesting stuff which I thought I'd stick up here.
Estimates of the total number of Twitter users differ slightly but the broad consensus seems to be around the 2.1 million figure that is logged by Twitdir. Twitter growth has accelerated significantly over the past few months, as the graph above sourced from Hitwise shows, seemingly leaving all it's main competitors trailing in it's wake. And despite a degree of buzz around Plurk a couple of months back, as Mashable reports, Twitter still seems very much to be the micro-blogging service of choice. Interesting too that the patchy service has apparently failed to put people off, with Hitwise reporting return visitor numbers remaining steady. Personally, in a strange way it has for me become part of it's charm (though I could perhaps do with a few less fail-whales).
Twitdir also records a "Top 100 Followed" ranking, with the top people like Kevin Rose and Barack Obama, recording follower numbers in the region of 40-50,000.
I am finding that I am using both Twitter and Plurk but in very different ways. Twitter is for reaching a broad network in a broadcast manner -- asking for help, direct questions and announcing news.
Plurk, however, I use for conversations and for more in-depth discussions. Almost like a chatroom.
Posted by: Gavin Heaton | July 12, 2008 at 12:04 AM
The problem with Twitter is the volume of information put out. I follow some people that will post 20 phrases in a row to come across with an idea. At the same time other people are updating wordpress blogs and sending all their no-value updates. I get more value from FaceBook updates.
Posted by: Cindy King | July 12, 2008 at 12:06 PM
The problem with Twitter is the volume of information put out. I follow some people that will post 20 phrases in a row to come across with an idea. At the same time other people are updating wordpress blogs and sending all their no-value updates. I get more value from FaceBook updates.
Posted by: Cindy King | July 12, 2008 at 12:06 PM