Will microblogging get the architecture right in time?
Russell is bang on, microblogging should be based on a queuing system and not whatever it is now. Hindsight is 20/20 of course, no one thought Twitter or microblogging would take off like this.
The lesson from Twitter is that microblogs aren’t Content Management Systems at all, but are instead Messaging systems, and have to be architected as such. SMTP or EDI are our models here, not publishing or blogs.
Here’s how a microblog system has to work to scale: All the messages created by users have to go into a Queue when they’re created, and an external process then has to go through one by one and figure out which messages go into which subscriber’s message list. As the system grows and more messages are created, the messages may arrive in your "inbox" slower, but they will still arrive. This type of system can be easily broken up into dedicated servers and multiple processes can handle different parts of the read/write process, and the individual user message lists can be more easily cached - as once a page is created that contains messages, it doesn’t change. Source: Let the microblogs bloom - RussellBeattie.com
As we’re seeing more interesting ways to aggregate our microblogging (like TweetDeck and ping.fm), I see that we’re accelerating towards microblogging as the fourth pillar of e-communication (email, IM, and blogging being the other three).
The only question is, will the microblogging systems get into a better architecture in time?
Tags: identi.ca, microblogging, ping.fm, TwitterRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Social Media, Technology, Web Services

1 opinion for Will microblogging get the architecture right in time?
Will microblogging get the architecture right in time? | Proxy |Tech & Internet Blog
Jul 5, 2008 at 6:37 pm
[…] Source:Will microblogging get the architecture right in time? […]
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: