I picked this new Twitter service from a blog post Orli Yakuel of Go2web20.net made yesterday, the service is called “TwitterGallery” and the basic idea of this site is that you can use themes on your Twitter page to make it look more appealing, much like Twitter.com already offers but apart from the obvious creative types will this really appeal too, more often then not I see themes such as Cali Lewis’s Twitter page which have a main picture of the person located behind the Twitter updates, this is the most common example.
I
think that method represents a much more approachable Twitter page, but
this idea of themes isn’t really that interesting, admittedly I am
looking at this in a very biased manner, but my immediate thoughts are
starting to be drawn to how many may not even use the Twitter Web
Interface, I know I read my tweets through Twhirl
or Twitter search, will the regular non techie users of Twitter however
appreciate it because they haven’t discovered external apps yet? Or
will it be more of a vice versa will users return to the Twitter Web Client to use the service.
My
secondary thought to this maybe that new people to Twitter may have fun
creating all different types of themes for their page, such as the way
people do on Myspace
which in my opinion is grossly overdone on some pages, this would be
interesting to almost see a little mini theme war happening.
I also found another example of “Twitter Themes” at Positive Space Blog,
the offering isn’t quite as vast but still good enough, what has
impressed me with both sites is how the themes are implemented into
Twitter.com, naturally I would have assumed it would have needed an
install like a WordPress theme would, but the code from the site simply fits into the customized settings of your Twitter account.
What
growth opportunity would there be for a company who is involved in
graphic design to monetise this idea, I mean firstly is there a true
market for this or is it just anyone creating new themes? Could there
be a subscription model to download as many different professional
themes as you want to customize your Twitter page, or maybe a free ad
supported model where a page background could be its own clickable ad, maybe a bit drastic (or not!)
Download Squad did a feature on how Twitter could monetize its business model, themes wasn’t one of them! Steve Polland also did the same, the thing that concerns me about his thinking on Twitter monetization is about how Twitter should monetize external apps, which of course are being written using the external API!
Of
course, the overall point I want to make it just how much I don’t think
Twitter Themes will be a huge success, they may be if more people stay
at the Twitter Web client rather then external apps, but we shall see!
Originally published at: Josh Chandler’s Blog
