When Twitter was first introduced in 2006, it quickly became the nexus for online conversation within the social web. Now, at five years of age, it has changed from functioning as a social network to becoming an information network. Twitter even refers to itself as a "real-time information network” designed to connect users to the latest information on topics of interest.
This begs the question, if the conversation is no longer taking place on Twitter, where did it go? You know the answer: Facebook!A recent study from marketing agency Digital Clarity found that 80% of under-25s used a second screen to communicate with friends while watching TV and 72% used Twitter, Facebook or a mobile app to comment on shows.
As The New York Times puts the finishing touches on a metered paywall system that goes up March 28, cheapskate devotees of the news source are finding workarounds that will allow them to continue to read the paper for free, even after they've surpassed their allotted 20 stories per month.
Forbes reports the Times is attempting to stamp out the subversion attempts as they find them. One notable hole in the paywall is freeNYTimes, a Twitter account that's meant to link to every NYT story that posts. The account, which uses the NYT's own application programming interface to automate the process, lets readers vault over the paywall because the newspaper's system allows incoming links from social networking sites.
A Times spokesperson says the paper has asked Twitter to disable the account because it violates its trademark.
