30 predictions for the future of Twitter

At the 140conf conference in LA, Jeff Pulver asked me to think about the future of Twitter and even though I obviously have no crystal ball, I took some risks and here you go, I gathered my predictions here, in the form of "tweet slides" so you might want to watch the video too. Some of those predictions were suggested to me by my friends on Twitter, let me know if I missed one credit as I prepared it... in realtime).

It will reach masses of people

They won’t use 
the same tools as we do

It will not be only about Twitter
 -status updates will be open across social software
 -all social software will have status updates
 -Facebook has 40+ million updates a day

Twitter will still be dominant
 in status updates
it's the motherboard on which we plug in

We will laugh thinking we were updating them all manually

The social graph 
will also open up

Twitter will be big to get an idea of a person or a brand reputation
not by number of followers but mostly influence with retweeting and lists
lets you think like that person thinks

Twitter will replace SMS for millions of people
-it is portable and archives across devices
-you don’t need to remember a phone number
-you are not tied to a mobile operator

Twitter might replace Chat for many people, too
-a DM exchange is very similar to a private chat
-Twitter lists are very similar to a public chat room

Location will be one of the most widespread status update

Private updates will be bigger than public updates
(my kids say...)

Public ecommerce 
status updates won’t work
buying things is very intimate

Live reviews of any place and product will deeply influence it though

Promos by brands and retailers will have big success 
for last minute deals

Talking to shops and restaurants via Twitter will become standard
and will get opt in coupons as we enter a shop, based on location

Web will be a fraction 
of mobile use

Dating over Status updates
won’t be big 

Twitter won’t display 
ads in your main feed

Users will get too angry at unsolicited ads

Other revenue opportunities such as pro accounts for businesses will be enough

There will be more devices publishing updates than humans
wifi scale, planes, trains, cars all posting updates

Corporations will have entire teams devoted to Twitter and status updates

Hyperlocal news sites with Twitter geotagging feature
(thanks, @stevefarnworth)

Google and Bing will be the dominant ways to search Twitter

Google will have its own Twitter and won’t acquire Twitter

There will be a few alternatives for niche search such as brand monitoring

Internal Enterprise Twitter like services will become standard

Vertical Twitter apps 
will start to appear

Stocktweets is the first one

Twitter will remain mostly used outside of Twitter.com

Language will evolve adapting to 140char, concise, ignore rules (thanks, @bernard_d)

@mentions spam will grow and become a tough to solve issue

There will be less and less bullshit 
in public events and in general

It will always be about you, 
not the tools

Oh and that makes 34 predictions, not 30, a few more came in last minute :-) add yours in comments!