Web-based phone service JAJAH has just released their Twitter () calling feature JAJAH@Call in beta, giving participating members the ability to call each other, free of charge, by way of Twitter.

The calling service works when a member tweets “@call @twittername.” The tweet will cause both phones to ring, and the Twitterers will be connected without the service sharing either telephone number.

JAJAH@Call also works independent of the platform you use, so whether you use the web, a destkop client, or a mobile application when tweeting, the tweet-to-call service should work without hiccup.

Though pretty unique, JAJAH@Call has some interesting conditions associated with the service, none more interesting than the 2 minute talk time limitation, which the company considers the verbal equivalent of a tweet. Also, in order to work, both parties — caller and recipient — need to be members of the JAJAH@Call service.

We’re quite intrigued by the voice-over-Twitter idea, though we do think it could create funky situations where you receive phone calls from Twitterers you don’t really want to talk to. In some instances, this could be a great way to immediately contact someone you need to reach on a pressing matter, but in others, it could turn into a big if not awkward distraction.

We can just envision the uncomfortable greetings now. Hello, I’m so and so, and I follow you on Twitter, my Twitter name is XXXX. Do you want to go out on a date sometime? Or, say for instance, you’re in the middle of a sentence and reach the 2 minute limit and you’re both cut off from each other. One saving grace is that calls can only be made to people who follow you, which means should a particular caller annoy you, you can unfollow them on Twitter to prevent future voice communication.

We have to give it to JAJAH for pushing the Twitter envelope and are looking forward to giving the service a try. Let us know your take on voice-over-Twitter in the comments.

Phone image from Balakov on Flickr (

The Sun Sets On Social Media by George Simpson, Friday, August 14, 2009, 5:24 PM

An annual report on the state of the UK’s television, radio and telecoms markets says that social networking has begun to mature “both metaphorically and literally” especially for teens and those in their early twenties. The old farts are still piling in (probably accelerating the rate at which the teens are hitting the exits.) Time wasted on Second Life is down to nine hours a month from a high of 28 hours. It is no secret that more and more folks on this side of the ocean are giving up on Twitter. It is perhaps too soon to say I told you so, but what the hell, “I told you so.”

While many aspects of social media may well endure, teens are no longer building their lives around Facebook. I can say this because I have three teens in my family and I watch closely how they consume media, even though I realize that their media habits are like an iceberg, with most of it hidden from view. The oldest, soon out the door for college, hasn’t sent an e mail in five years; nor, I can confirm, has he answered any. He has gone totally mobile. His whole media world is totally contained in his pocket. For him it is all about texting and less often actually talking on the device. He goes online only to check out a video recommended to him by his friends and to shop. He never reads a newspaper, never sees TV news and so has only a vague sense of what is going on around the world, and is quick to try and validate/defend urban legends.His little sister is just now starting her Facebook career, but she is much more circumspect about what she puts there, and who she connects with. She is far more about video chat. She has no clue about world events beyond celebrity and entertainment. She has upgraded her mobile so that she can start to text more. She knows more about mobile apps than either of her parents. I predict that she will be all mobile within two years.

The youngest still thinks his PC is a primarily a gaming platform. He hasn’t bothered in three months to charge the mobile he so desperately couldn’t live without. He knows about Facebook, but hasn’t established a page yet. If they would interrupt x-box games with breaking news, he’d be the smartest kid on the block. But they don’t.

None of them know much about or care anything about Twitter or My Space or Bebo or any other social media platforms. They don’t care about blogs. They’ve never read this column in nearly a decade that I’ve written it. Although they WILL complain if I get their ages wrong on my Web site.

They will not depend on desktops the way we did — in fact, all three have already moved to notebooks so they can walk around the house with them. They would rather watch a download or DVD than they would live TV because they can stop it and resume it at will. All three are heavy DVR users (although the youngest still likes to watch commercials; he thinks they are funny).

They haven’t read the magazine subscriptions their parents have foisted on them. But two of the three of them are voracious book readers, the youngest preferring his mom’s Kindle to paper.

But I digress. I said early on that I thought social media was overrated — from the millions of blogs (now long abandoned) that served no useful purpose — to virtual worlds where people tried to pretend their lives were more interesting than they really are, to networking sites where the under employed set upon those with jobs. Yes, teens will flow in and out of Facebook-like social media for a while, but only until they get their mobile legs. Older folks who set up shop on Facebook need desperately to get a life.

Make you think? It does me.

There’s no question in my mind the opportunities for sourcing and collaboration offered by the Internet – quoting Wikinomics – are vast, but the services we’re using right now aren’t right, somehow.

Search, Real Time Search, Broadcast and Discussions are right it seems to me but this mindless chasing for followers which are never going to listen or be listened to is a complete waste of time.

Like everything else on the Internet, social media is in danger of being suffocated by the Sellerazi and the self-daters.

I’d love to hear from anybody who has a different perspective they can explain to me.

Twitter enters the trough of disillusionment

Canadian public relations practitioner Dave Fleet believes the Twitter microblogging service has moved through the Gartner Hype Cycle to the point where it will now quickly become unfashionable. In his  Five Potential Effects Of Twitter’s Shift To The Trough Of Disillusionment Fleet charts the technology’s progress and makes some predictions about what will happen next.

Fleet’s analysis is on the money. But there’s something else going on with Twitter. After a period of stability, the service appears to be changing. Earlier this week the company altered the way users propagate messages – a process known as retweeting.

In other words, Twitter is still evolving. It will probably be a different beast by the time it resumes its progress through the later stages of the Garter Hype Cycle. Or maybe it will be replaced by something else.

Came across this by accident, following a links offered by Zemanta

Either way, Bill Bennett looks to have some interesting things to say.

Twitter tweets are 40% ‘babble’

Micro-blogging site Twitter has some high profile users

A short-term study of Twitter has found that 40% of the messages sent via it are “pointless babble.”

Carried out by US market research firm Pear Analytics, the study aimed to produce a snapshot of what people do with the service.

Almost as prevalent as the babble were “conversational” tweets that used it as a surrogate instant messaging system.

The study found that only 8.7% of messages could be said to have “value” as they passed along news of interest.

Message stream

To get an idea of what Twitter was being used for, Pear Analytics dipped into the Tweet stream every 30 minutes between 11:00 and 17:00 on weekdays for a fortnight.

…a source for people to share their current activities that have little to do with everyone else Ryan Kelly, Pear Analytics MP is named Labour ‘Twitter tsar’

In total it grabbed 2,000 messages and then put each message it grabbed into one of six categories; news, spam, self-promotion, pointless babble, conversational and those with pass-along value.

Conversational tweets were those that bounced back and forth between two users, and those dubbed “pointless babble” were of the “I’m eating a sandwich” type.

When Pear Analytics started its short-term study, it assumed that most of the tweets would be either spam or self-promotion. This belief, it said, was driven by the growing number of firms starting to use Twitter as a tool to drum up sales.

Instead, it found that 40.5% could be classified as pointless babble, 37.5% as conversational and 8.7% as having pass-along value. Self promotion and spam stood at 5.85% and 3.75% respectively.

“With the new face of Twitter, it will be interesting to see if they take a heavier role in news, or continue to be a source for people to share their current activities that have little to do with everyone else,” said Ryan Kelly, founder of Pear Analytics, writing about its analysis.

Pear Analytics intends to repeat its study every quarter to track trends in usage.

I don’t where they got the stream from but it wasn’t my follow list which, if we include conversations which I’m not part of and have no interest in as babble the babble comes to 90% 9% is spam and 1% might be worth reading.

I’d love to know how others cope and make sense of Twitter?

Gary Vaynerchuck says Twitter isn’t about conversation – it’s about listening?