As Twitter grows, and Facebook continues adding features to imitate the platform, many are wondering what the future revisions of the Twitter platform will look like. I’m not one to attempt to predict the future, history has shown that rarely yields great results. But based on Twitter’s market position, the expansion of Facebook, and the position of other minor players in related markets I believe there’s a lot of opportunity to grow the functionality of the Twitter platform, while maintaining the simple and intuitive user experience.
As Friendfeed users know all too well, the added features of Friendfeed and similar microblogging services offer a much richer media experience then that offered by more spartan services such as Twitter. Adding functionality to Twitter through media sharing and dedicated URL storage fields will enrich the twitter user experience while matching the functionality offered by Facebook.
URL storage in dedicated fields will let users write full 140 character messages and remove the need for external URL shortening services. These services may confuse new users and beyond click tracking offer very little added value. A twitter operated shortening service can be used for SMS users, or one of the many external services can be used.
Media sharing is a great feature that could allow Twitter to grow its functionality while matching some of the useful features offered by Facebook. A partnership could work well, allowing Twitter to concentrate on delivery a great microblogging experience while using a service like Picasa Web to share pictures. This will allow Twitter to avoid the huge infrastructure costs that Facebook is now facing, while letting users share higher resolution pictures. The facial recognition features of Picasa Web will make everyone’s life easier, as anyone who’s ever uploaded 50 pictures to Facebook and had the daunting task of tagging them will tell you. Video sharing partnerships with YouTube or Vimeo could add more features while limiting Twitters infrastructure and development costs.