As I signed up, I asked myself “What is the point of Twitter?”  Despite my lack of knowledge on the application, I went ahead and made my first “tweet”.

Within 5 minutes, I had a follower.  Really??  I post one sentence and you want to know everything I have to say?  You can bet I’m going to delete my account once I’m done blogging this.

Doing some research, I find that my question has been brought up elsewhere. Here are 9 answers that journalist Paul Bradshaw gives us:

1. It’s a great way to publish to mobile devices;
2. it’s a social networking tool to make contacts and carry on conversations;
3. it’s a way of discovering new information (through tips and leads);
4. it’s a great way to follow what’s happening through your mobile (set Twitter up to send you mobile updates)
5. It’s a way of organising people
6. It’s a great way of reporting from a live event or other occasions when you only have your phone
7. You can aggregate a number of twitter feeds to one collective feed of what a group of people are doing
8. You can push an RSS feed into twitter, creating a mobile/social network update
9. For bloggers, it’s a good place to put thoughts and ideas that are so brief you wouldn’t normally blog them

From that list, I personally only agree with a few.  Twitter is good for communication via a mobile device.  But seriously, “It’s a way of organizing people?”  I have these things called friends.  In fact, I know them well enough that I don’t need to organize them.  Twitter is just dehumanizing the communication between people.

A majority of the reasons given here have better solutions.  I have carried on conversations for ages on instant messengers.  I network through LinkedIn and occasionally through Facebook.  If an idea is too short to blog about, is it even worth mentioning?  A Facebook status update can provide many of the features here.  Facebook also provides the ability to provide pictures and videos, which results in a more personal communication.

In summary, I personally feel there are better ways to tell everyone every little detail about your life.   Other applications are better at solving the human’s need for communication than Twitter.

Click here to find some more reasons why people think twitter is useful.

Many developers are heading towards Facebook applications with hopes to find a goldmine.  Everyone knows money can be made on facebook, but how much are companies able to make?

The amount a company can make is largely based on how their revenue stream is set up.  Most applications make money in the following ways:

• Advertising
• Selling services
• Selling virtual goods

According to some blogs, recent aquisitions value ad-based companies at approximately $1.40 per active user.  So ad-based companies need a large user base in order to become a developer’s “goldmine”.

One type of revenue stream that is making money is selling virtual goods.  Virtual goods, especially in the form of online video games (i.e., Mob Wars) are starting to pan out for developers.  A game called (fluff) friends allows you to buy fancier pets and options with real money.  In (fluff) friends, they average over $1 per month per average user, with some users spending hundreds, or even thousands on their pets.

Overall, the most popular facebook application pulled in $1.5 million over a 5 month period.  Compared to MySpace’s estimated $800 million a year, facebook applications are hardly making any money.

Garrett Camp, 1 of 3 StumbleUpon Founders

I was reading an interview with one of the founders of StumbleUpon when I realized a lot can be learned from their experiences.

It all started with a pain that they were experiencing.  Search engines were very useful, but they were not effective at discovering new websites.  With technical ability and a well-planned vision, the founders were able to convert their idea into a product.

There were other aspects that led to the success of StumbleUpon. Garrett Camp says that good Web 2.0 businesses all start with a great idea.  He also says that the best thing when starting a new business is working with friends and people you trust.

An interview with Justin LaFrance from StumbleUpon shows that “Keep[ing] your costs down, get constant feedback, develop incrementally,” are the be insights for starting your own Web 2.0 project.

In Summary,

• “A great product is absolutely the most important thing”
• Work with friends and people you trust
  
• Keep your costs down
• Get constant feedback
• Develop incrementally
  

Blurb is a fairly new web 2.0 site that allows you to create and publish your own book.  You are able to select the size of the book, hardcover or softcover, as well as color or black and white.

Each book is priced depending on the size of the page and the number of pages.  You are able to create a black and white 5″ x 8″ softcover book for as little as $4.95 + shipping.  Prices can get expensive very quickly, as a 13″ x 11″Hardcover book starts at $54.95.

I feel that Blurb is a special web 2.0 site because users have the capability to make money off of selling books.  It promotes creativity and is perfect for photographers who are looking to make a more professional looking portfolio.  Beginning writers are able to cheaply create books to help get their name out in the world.

Recently, Mark Zuckerberg announced finances for the privately held company, projecting $300 – $350 million in revenue.  Facebook is currently breaking even, but Zuckerberg plans to spend $200 million on servers next year.  The large increase in server costs would give Facebook a negative cash flow. 

So how does Facebook make $300 million dollars in revenue?

• Advertising
• Facebook Gifts
• Selling information

Its somewhat obvious that a lot of money can be made by advertising, and with 150 million active users, gifts will add up.  I’m assuming these two items make up the majority of the revenue, but there is another source of income that most Facebook users are not aware occurs.

In Facebook’s privacy policy, they have the right to sell your information to other companies.  This means that Facebook has become one of the largest source of marketing information for the 30 and under demographic.

The first half of the following video does a great job at explaining how Facebook sells your private information.  Personally, I would ignore the second part of the video (supposedly Facebook is a government consipracy to spy on you!)