Did you ever wish you could read a mile of tweets in someone else’s shoes?
TwtRoulette, a new collaboration between angel investor Shervin Pishevar and 15-year-old Web developer Stephen Ou, let’s you do just that.
Any Twitter user can add themselves to the directory, instantly giving any TwtRoulette user a glimpse into the other user’s stream.
Go ahead and test it out: peek into my personal Twitter stream.
Interestingly, as far as Twitter API implementations go, the ordering on this one’s all mixed up. The traditional two-step process goes something like this: first, a third-party developer creates an awesome feature or application (like, say, an iPhone app for Twitter) and then Twitter eventually makes the feature or application an official part of Twitter (see: Twitter for iPhone). In this case, however, TwtRoulette’s seemingly gimmicky offering actually used to be an official feature on the site accessible via a With Friends tab.
Twitter removed the tab two years ago because it was “rarely accessed,” but you can be sure to see the option make a comeback if TwtRoulette sees any significant usage.
Though Twitter may not have mentioned this, TwtRoulette does bring up some privacy issues. If, for example, someone I follow has their profile set to private, will absolute strangers get to see their tweets through my TwtRoulette stream? That shouldn’t be the case, but it’s what the service promises to deliver.
In spite of all that, TwtRoulette, more a fun tool than anything else, probably won’t see much lasting popularity, but it might bring some attention to a more valuable project of Ou’s, iTunes Instant. Built out of frustration with the slow, clunky nature of the official iTunes Store, iTunes Instant provides music shoppers with a much faster alternative, albeit less sleek.
I’m looking forward to future creations led by this young developer.
