
  Twitter’s Internal Strategy Laid Bare: To Be “The Pulse Of The Planet”  - GVRV
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/16/twitters-internal-strategy-laid-bare-to-be-the-pulse-of-the-planet/?awesm=tcrn.ch_62z&utm_campaign=techcrunch&utm_content=shorturl&utm_medium=tcrn.ch-copypaste&utm_source=direct-tcrn.ch
======
tptacek
Oh, look! Here's how "newsworthy" the content TechCrunch got from Twitter was:
so newsworthy that they're going to trickle it out one-per-day to maximize
page views.

Again. I hate to be a killjoy. But last time I suggested this, it worked, so
maybe it'll work this time too:

What happened to TechCrunch could happen to any YC company, or any company
with HN contributors at it.

We can't make TechCrunch manage their publication differently, but we can
refuse to promote what they're doing here. Just hit the "flag" button on these
stories.

That's what I just did.

~~~
dcurtis
Do not use the flag button for things like this. That's not what it's for.
This is not spam or off-topic.

If you don't want to support the story, don't vote for it.

------
cmos
It seems like this might be the 'high tide mark' for both of these companies..
Techcrunch has definitely jumped the shark, and Twitter just might be close as
well.

Twitter was on Oprah. Google is the new bad. Facebook is parentized. Myspace
is still 13. Blogs are overtagged. Digg is all CAPS. Reddit is overtaken with
athiesm.

When are we going to start laughing at the social media sharefest frenzy of
this decade? It started with blogging, and it's going to end with twitter.

We're going to end up just like 1995, making our own websites with funky
counters.

~~~
enneff
"Reddit is overtaken with athiesm."

Eh?! There are many things one could say it's been overtaken by, but atheism
is pretty low on the list.

------
joez
"Nevertheless, the publication of stolen documents is irresponsible and we
absolutely did not give permission for these documents to be shared. Out of
context, rudimentary notes of internal discussions will be misinterpreted by
current and future partners jeopardizing our business relationships."

-<http://blog.twitter.com/2009/07/someone-call-security.html>

Sounds like the beginnings of a law suit.

------
omouse
No one mentioned the Tipjoy part?! What is _wrong_ with you people??

Twitter likes Tipjoy "has good vision" but Tipjoy is missing the "real
banking" part.

~~~
antiismist
Thanks for pointing that out, I missed it the first time. See it here:
<http://www.techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/73.png>

------
geuis
I'll admit that the info is somewhat interesting. But I have absolutely no
respect for Techcrunch anymore. For a company/blog that garnered a ton of
respect over the last few years for helping to promote interesting new
startups, they have strayed far from that ideal. That they would accept
information that was obtained illegally and then proceed to broadcast that to
the world is dishonorable. They can't be trusted to be responsible any more.

For any number of upcoming and existing startups whose founders and employees
read HN, I can't imagine that they would want any kind of ties to Techcrunch
after this. I know that I sure as hell don't.

~~~
icey
Did you read the article?

This sentence is in the first paragraph:

"... we’ve spent much of the last 36 hours talking directly to Twitter about
the right way to go about doing that."

~~~
justinweiss
For what it's worth:

ev: "@TechCrunch @arrington "we have been given the green light by Twitter to
post this information" What?! By whom? That's not our understanding"

(<http://twitter.com/ev/status/2676203744>)

~~~
dfranke
Alright, that's pretty damning. As of now, I'm jumping on the "let's ban
Techcrunch links from HN" bandwagon.

~~~
zimbabwe
As much as I'd love to see this happen (more power to VentureBeat and
ReadWriteWeb and, hell, even Mashable), Paul and Mike are friends so it's not
happening. As much as I get my hopes up every month when this debate comes up,
the guy who controls the bans has been pretty consistent on his position here.

~~~
nopassrecover
Wow had no idea personal relationships were the factor overriding community
pressure.

~~~
zimbabwe
TechCrunch also gives YCombinator sites tons of write-ups. It's not anything
underhanded, just a relationship that both sides benefit from - at the cost of
the people who think Hacker News would be better without Arrington's peculiar
brand of self-righteous yellow journalism.

------
ssn
I refuse to follow links to techcrunch.com (see 'ethics')

Added: techcrunch is making profit from a crime of privacy violation. this
should be simply condemned. nothing else.

~~~
hymanroth
When the storm fades away you will go back to the site. TC knows this.

~~~
smokinn
No I won't. I've been refusing to follow any links to TC for a while now and
other than the occasional tinyurl'd link on twitter I've managed to avoid that
cesspool entirely. If news.yc would stop voting up every article they write to
the front page I wouldn't even have to read their linkbait headlines either.

~~~
hymanroth
I stand corrected then. Respect.

------
vaksel

       user = unique individual having a conscious twitter experience in a given week
    

and they want a billion users like that? Will never happen

~~~
raghus
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Hairy_Audacious_Goal>

~~~
ryanwaggoner
Why stop at a billion, then? Why not a trillion?

I think the point is that a billion users who log in once a week is not
unrealistic, it's virtually impossible.

~~~
raghus
Over 2 Billion cellphones in the world - according to WolframAlpha
(<http://www06.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=cellphones+worldwide>)

------
pkulak
I'm not sure I want any closed technology owned and operated by one company to
become "the pulse of the internet".

~~~
zhyder
Agreed, it was bad enough when IM was stuck in various closed networks, but at
least then no single network had a monopoly. We need to think about how to
build a distributed/federated Twitter alternative. Anyone want to get together
to brainstorm how this could work?

~~~
extension
There have been myriad Twitter alternatives since long before Twitter existed,
most of them having vastly superior functionality. The masses have made it
crystal clear that they will accept none but the most crippled and proprietary
offering in this domain.

------
hymanroth
TechCrunch's Faustian dilemma: to sell or not to sell its moral soul (or
what's left of it) for an astronomical number of page views?

Gee, that was hard - now where's the damn 'post' button?

------
kevintwohy
It's interesting how difficult it seems to be for people -- in this situation
in particular -- to formulate an opinion independent of their emotional
bias(es) with respect to the parties here. It seems like the people who are
fond of Twitter (and let's just say 'not-so-fond' of TC), are playing the
'ethics of journalism' card a bit hastily.

The other side has taken to simplifying the circumstances involved in a way
that's willfully reductive. The details matter.

The info was stolen. It's out there. It's really unfortunate that it happened.
It would have been a kind gesture for TC not to publish the info, but then
again, kindness pays minimum wage. Anyone who claims that they're somehow
offended or appalled that TC published in this case is being intellectually
inconsistent -- every major news outlet gets their hands dirty on a daily
basis to get headlines.

TC displayed some ambiguous ethics, to be sure -- it's just a bit childish to
claim that the scenario is somehow unique when the other party happens to be
popular.

------
maurycy
I don't get the Marissa Mayer thread. She asked for stats on Twitter's growth
but there is already Google Analytics code on all Twitter pages.

~~~
jgilliam
Google employees spying on Google Analytics accounts would definitely be
considered "evil."

~~~
maurycy
This is very interesting then that Google gave up urge of cheating, and
actually follows the rules.

~~~
cdibona
Imagine what Techcrunch, the fence of the internet, would do.

------
datums
I remember a company (FuckedCompany) during the first bubble that all they did
was publish private memos, conversations, and documents. I was disappointed to
see TC deciding not only prolong the story for days, but also publish some of
these documents. What will they do next for traffic?

------
jonknee
Twitter's best shot at making money is to sue TechCrunch. Other than that it
sounds like they don't have many ideas but need to make $68m by 2010. Good
luck!

~~~
hymanroth
+1 for humor

------
zhyder
This is really cool, gives a sense for how these discussions happen at other
startups. Some similarities with our startup's discussions too, makes me
feel... _normal_.

------
jpcx01
The big story here, and what's circulating on quite a few of the google news
reports about this incident, is the apparent "insecurity" of the cloud. If
these documents were on an internal network, it would have been much, much
harder for the hacker to grab them since most internal networks are
firewalled.

This is a huge blow to all of us web app developers looking to sell apps since
things like this will make corporations untrustworthy of our defacto security
system (username/password + forgot password).

Google Docs needs a "high security" option that removes these easy access
points (forgot password), and other web app developers handling sensitive data
need to follow suit.

We can fill in that role through some kind of manual process of confirming a
person's identity via other means (not entirely sure how, but i'm sure there's
a way).

~~~
jonknee
Just add an optional access limit by IP address.

~~~
jpcx01
That actually sounds like a great solution for some companies. Wonder if
Google Docs will add this anytime soon.

It'll make the cloud app much less useful (mobile access issues, etc). However
I think its worth it in certain cases, like if you're a high profile startup
or a bank.

~~~
jonknee
If it's available as a per file option it balances the usefulness. For
documents that need high security you can choose it. Mobile devices should
still be able to connect in through a VPN right?

------
Tiktaalik
Very interesting read. They seem pretty savvy.

It's got to be a concern to them that Facebook has done all of the things they
brainstormed in the "how would Facebook kill us" meeting. I wonder what their
"how would Facebook kill us" meetings since then have gone?

~~~
hymanroth
There's no doubt the content is fascinating - but they're _private_ documents.
TC had no right to publish them, and we should all feel a little guilty for in
part legitimizing TC's decision to publish them.

~~~
dannyr
There are a lot of stories that were based on leaked documents.

Stories on watergate, Abu Ghraib, etc. were published because somebody leaked
something private.

I have to admit though that they have more significance than Twitter.

~~~
carbon8
In those cases, there was a legitimate public interest in having them leaked
and published. Very different.

~~~
dannyr
So who decides what is public interest or not?

Twitter has millions of users. We provide some private data to them. Shouldn't
we know what is being discussed privately on how they will use it?

~~~
adharmad
When it has to do with the government, the public has a right to expect
transparency. With a private organization, its different.

------
philfreo
Seeing all these internal meeting notes published makes me want to never write
anything down.

~~~
omouse
Why? Are you embarrassed by how crappy your note-taking skills are? :P

------
programnature
It would be wrong for Techcrunch to NOT publish this info, because by not
publishing, it would simply circulate within the elite by other means.
Techcrunch's friends, and any of the many companies with a stake in this,
would find a way to get the info.

Its the little guy who is disadvantaged by this not coming out.

Whatever damage this leak has caused is not from TC publishing this, but from
their negotiating partners getting this info. Which would happen no matter
what TC did.

~~~
trefn
What value is this information to the "little guy"? If the only value is
"that's interesting" then essentially nothing.

~~~
jpcx01
Interesting = value

~~~
quizbiz
interesting != value. Consider the most boring class you took and how you
later discovered it was all applicable.

~~~
jpcx01
I never said it works in reverse. not interesting != not valuable

Hoever... something thats interesting is valuable. Always. If you can capture
mindshare, you can convert it to dollars. Plain and simple

~~~
ahoyhere
I'm not sure where you're coming from with the position that "interesting =
value." Just look at the top stories on Reddit and Digg (or MSM, for that
matter).

What tweaks the _interesting_ receptors is often formulaic, sensationalistic,
base, pablum.

------
ulf
Has anyone thought of the possibility that Twitter leaked those documents
intentionally? Do we have a statement from them dealing with the whole affair?

~~~
jorgeortiz85
[http://blog.twitter.com/2009/07/twitter-even-more-open-
than-...](http://blog.twitter.com/2009/07/twitter-even-more-open-than-we-
wanted.html)

------
FreeRadical
could the whole thing be a stunt?

------
tonystubblebine
I hope this story doesn't get killed, because the actual details are pretty
interesting.

------
defunkt
If I'm reading this right, they predicted 25m users by the end of 2009?

As of July, they apparently have 40m. Cool.

~~~
sunir
They seem to want 25 million active, living people using Twitter. 40 million
accounts is not the same thing. See this post about the difference between
active and total users.

[http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2009/07/the-difference-between-
total...](http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2009/07/the-difference-between-total-uses-
and-active-users.html)

~~~
defunkt
Oh, so I wasn't reading it right :P

------
vaksel
it does look like another twitter astroturf, they really haven't reported
anything negative about twitter. All the things they posted, could be used as
a promotion to pitch twitter to investors.

~~~
hymanroth
Like the part where they call Google and Microsoft a 'distraction'

Or diss Marissa Mayer?

~~~
zimbabwe
Upon reading the diss of Marissa Mayer I found myself liking Twitter a little
more. But then, that's a very geeky reaction coming from somebody whose
friends imitate the Marissa Mayer laugh for fun.

------
bensummers
This is a perfect case study in the importance of choosing a good password and
ensuring that everyone in your organisation thinks about security.

------
guicifuentes
This is an advertorial.

------
bearwithclaws
Mike did not just post this.

------
korch
The first person to guess Michael Arrington's email password, grab all his
secret docs about his upcoming tablet computer and publish them, wins. Let's
see TC swallow that poison pill.

------
lucifer
cynical view here: it is possible twitter is using techcrunch to push
disinformation to confuse its competitors.

