Gary nails it here in the first 30 seconds – real-time search has tremendous value. (video below). Companies need to pay hyper-attention to what people are saying about their brands, and they need to follow up with the proper kind of interaction.
Peter Kafka of All Things Digital says, “You don’t go to Twitter to search for stuff.” I highly disagree! (and I call him “highly confused” in only the nicest way!).
Like Gary says, Twitter can monetize with advertising, just like Google did. Google used to be so very simple, and now it’s so huge and monetized with 100 different services… and people are still flocking to Google. Frankly, like Chris Brogan said here just the other day, people are completely beholden to Skynet, er I mean Google. There has been no mass exodus from Google, and there probably won’t be from Twitter either once they decide to take the monetization plunge.
Contrary to what some of the panelists said, Twitter is a really big deal, and companies that are running in the other direction are making a huge mistake.