Jitter, Twitch, Twitter
Dorsey: When we were starting the company, we wanted something that had a physical manifestation. When you received an update, your phone would buzz. We thought that was so cool — you do something virtually and it affects something physically.
We came up with the word Jitter. And Twitch. Both of those don't really bring up the best imagery — it's something you'd actually want to avoid. Noah Glass went to the dictionary and found the word Twitter. It's actually in the dictionary. It means a short, inconsequential burst of information and chirps from birds. We saw that definition and we're like — of course. This is it.
Twitter means a short, inconsequential burst of information and chirps from birds. We were like — of course.
TWTTR and the Shortcode
Dorsey: Like a standard Web 2.0 company, we removed the vowels — TWTTR. But we didn't do it just to copy Flickr. We did it because we were text-based. In the US, a shortcode was five digits, and we wanted ours to be TWTTR.
Then we found out that Teen People magazine had that shortcode. So we added the vowels back in, came up with shortcode 40404 — which had nothing to do with what we did, but it was available. And we took a bird illustration we found on the web. That became our logo.
We removed the vowels for the shortcode TWTTR. Then we found out Teen People had it. So the vowels came back.
The Users Invented Everything
Dorsey: The people using the service came up with the word 'tweet.' The @username, the hashtag, the retweet — all invented by the people using the service.
It's really meaningful when you build a brand that people can bring their own personality and invention to. That means you haven't just built a product — you've built a platform. People can build upon it and make their own thing. If they feel ownership over it, they continue to use it in really interesting ways.
Having the right name just makes everything really magical.
The @username, the hashtag, the retweet — all invented by the people using the service, not us.