Darn it Twitter. How can a company with so much potential and so much perceived momentum seem like they just are asleep at the switch? After this week's visible discussion where we clearly outlined how your real-time search database is so broken that it barely has any value past the last 48 hours, you had to go ahead and break the real-time aspect of it as well - doing so on a long Memorial Day weekend when it seems nobody is around to hit the big shiny red button to turn the blasted thing back on.Yes, your base product is working. I can Tweet. It can get to people. But your Twitter Search product is completely on pause - and has been all evening. Forget about using Twitter during an emergency or an earthquake, or even to see other people's top trending hashtags. The ones you have listed now are themselves six hours old. The Lakers' NBA game is still in the second quarter, according to you, even though ESPN tells me they won hours ago.
Go Lakers! No, wait. You're saying the game already ended?
It's getting to the point I even feel guilty pointing it out - considering how often you get hit for database inconsistencies, odd behavior and downtime. But all that goodwill that had built up as you were at the tip of the spear of a phenomenon many are calling the real-time Web is just wasting away - even as you take down your partner infrastructure, like TweetBeep, TweetDeck and Twazzup down with you.
So, is the Twitter Search team on holiday?
It's like I asked you at 11 tonight, @ev, @biz and @al3x, "if there is a box I can reboot, just tell me where to go." On behalf of your growing, and in theory, loyal, user base, I will do this, because it's the right thing to do. I just wish you guys were more on top of it, and could at least tell us what is going on - and how much more fail we should expect.
I don't want to care this much. I want your product to just work the way it is supposed to work so we can benefit from it and so you can find a way to make money. But right now, you're making real time look like a joke.