Twitter：不指定收件人的新消息协议
Paul Graham 在2009年的文章中解释 Twitter 为何意义重大：它是一种新的消息协议，用户发布内容时不指定具体收件人，这一点与 TCP/IP、SMTP 和 HTTP 等少数成功协议类似。Twitter 由私人公司拥有却感觉像开放协议，部分原因是创始人缓慢货币化、未过度控制，这反而促进了其迅速普及。文章适合对社交网络起源和协议演进感兴趣的读者。
April 2009 Om Malik is the most recent of many people to ask why Twitter is such a big deal.
The reason is that it's a new messaging protocol, where you don't specify the recipients. New protocols are rare. Or more precisely, new protocols that take off are.
2009年4月 Om Malik是众多追问Twitter为何如此重要的人中最新的一位。
原因在于它是一种新的消息协议，你无需指定收件人。新协议本就罕见，或者说，能流行起来的新协议更是凤毛麟角。
There are only a handful of commonly used ones: TCP/IP (the Internet), SMTP (email), HTTP (the web), and so on. So any new protocol is a big deal. But Twitter is a protocol owned by a private company. That's even rarer.
常用的协议屈指可数：TCP/IP（互联网）、SMTP（电子邮件）、HTTP（万维网）等。因此任何新协议都意义重大。而Twitter是由私人公司拥有的协议，这就更为罕见了。
Curiously, the fact that the founders of Twitter have been slow to monetize it may in the long run prove to be an advantage. Because they haven't tried to control it too much, Twitter feels to everyone like previous protocols. One forgets it's owned by a private company. That must have made it easier for Twitter to spread.
有趣的是，Twitter的创始人迟迟未将其变现，从长远来看反而可能成为优势。因为他们没有过度控制，Twitter给所有人的感觉就像之前的协议一样。人们会忘记它由一家私人公司所有。这必然让Twitter更容易传播。