Twitter has become a hostile place, not that it hasn't been hostile in the past, just that it is getting from bad to worse.

Even if I Tweet this blog post there won't be long before someone will say I'm an oldfag complaining about the newfags.

Twitter used to have an engaging community, and now publishing a tweet is like screaming out in an empty place, no one will hear you, no one will see you, no one will notice what you will say. There is very minimum interaction happening right now on Twitter.

I can't understand the reason, maybe it is because people are more engaged with local and global celebrities, or 'social celebrities', I don't know. Even with an algorithm in place if you post something on Facebook you will get at least some interaction from the community, but on Twitter now it's basically none, at least for me.

So I think I have come to a point where there is no reward or value in return after posting a Tweet. The main reason why people like social media is the reward that one get from that social platform, on Facebook it maybe the likes or the comments. On Snapchat the number of people who saw your story, on Reddit the upvotes and comments.

Although it's nothing big, that self satisfaction is the reason why people keep coming back and keep using a social platform. That satisfaction is the reward that people get in return for using that social platform. 

And when you don't get that it's very hard to keep using that social platform. Without that value it becomes a burden, and the effort being put on making a tweet becomes a sour experience.

I am not sure the experience is the same for you, but this is what I feel and I have come to a point where I am considering stop using Twitter, however I am split on this because although the community has become hostile I have made lot of good friends and had got lot of opportunities because of Twitter. Which I will lose if I leave Twitter, but if things don't change on Twitter there will be a time where the scale will be more towards leaving Twitter than staying there.

It's no wonder that people are using Twitter less and less and they are having problems in getting new users on board. If Twitter doesn't change their user experience I am sure more people will leave Twitter or stop using it altogether.

Is Twitter The Next Yahoo

Yahoo came to a slow painful death few days back when majority of it was bought by Verizon for a lesser price than what Yahoo paid to by broadcast.com.

Like I said in a previous post Yahoo's problem was that it failed to innovate, failed to get along with the new trends in the tech arena unlike Facebook and Google who fiercely adopt to changes rather than just sticking in to what they are good at.

However when it comes to Twitter the once and still beloved micro-blogging platform ten years from now are we going to talk about Twitter the same way as we do today or are we going to talk about Twitter as same as we are talking about Yahoo?

Looking at Twitter it has lot of similarities to Yahoo. Yahoo did what they were good at and stuck with it, same can be said about Twitter. Over the past two to three years how much has Twitter changed? How much value has it added to their beloved users?

I see very little change from Twitter two years back and today, they added very little functionality and value to it's user experience. While the new kid on the block Snapchat has made inroads with their product. Snapchat has added stories, the discovery option where publishers can publish good content, recently they added memories. There is lot happening at Snapchat, what has happened on Twitter? Has it added any value to the users or advertisers?

Yes Twitter has added cards, and now every publication is using it, what good does it do? Where you have to scroll a long way down to see the same number of Tweets that we used to see without cards.

Also like Yahoo Twitter also made acquisitions like Vine and Periscope, which has yet to make a dent in the universe like they were supposed to do. And also Twitter has failed to address the harassment and bad experiences users face.

And all this has come down to less monthly active users, stunted growth, no clear path in making money.

There is lot at stake for Twitter and lot in common with Yahoo, it's up to them to change or like Google beat Yahoo it won't be long for Snapchat to replace Twitter.

Yahoo Comes To a Slow Painful Death

Who would have thought back then Yahoo will meet the sad end that they came across to they, being bought by Verizon for 4 billion dollars. They spent more money than that for their acquisitions, that they failed spectacularly.

Yahoo is a good example and teaches a lot for every company, no matter how strong you are, no matter how powerful you are, if you don't adapt, if you don't evolve you will be beaten by someone coming behind you. Even you are at the front of the race it's always good to look back where your competitors are.

Lack of innovation, missed opportunities, poor decision making, one can write a whole thesis about yahoo's failure.

Back in 1998 Google offered Yahoo their search platform, they didn't ask for much, just one million dollars. Yahoo rejected the offer, today Google is worth 500 billion dollars, and Yahoo was bought for hundred times less.

Yahoo didn't see or didn't want to adopt to the changing technological environment. They bought companies and screwed them up, I think Yahoo lacked a vision in what they want to be, a search engine? email platform? or a photo sharing service? They didn't have any idea, also they never had any idea in using big data or machine learning back in the day when others started using it.

That's my two cents on that, when I told this about to my mom her response was

If Yahoo bought Google  back in the day maybe we won't even have a thing called Google