The Case for a Status Update Standard
LinkedIn and Twitter announced a status update syncing arrangement yesterday. From LinkedIn...
"The idea is simple: When you set your status on LinkedIn you can now tweet it as well, amplifying it to your followers and real-time search services like Twitter Search and Bing. And when you tweet, you can send that message to your LinkedIn connections as well, from any Twitter service or tool."
We're seeing a movement toward status syncing, There's this partnership but also the emergence of tools like Tumblr, Ping.fm and Posterous, which can also accomplish the same across multiple services.
So, why doesn't Twitter and others team to submit the status update to a standards body? This will ensure that we don't see a repeat of what occurred with incompatible instant messaging services. If there's one protocol that everyone can adopt and build off of, it will make the real-time web faster, easier and more innovative. Let's hope this is a first such step.
