As you’ll have seen, I’m on Twitter again, after a long absence.

This wasn’t a veiled attack on Twitter, I’ve done that before and made no attempt to hide my displeasure.

As I see things, this “pyramid” I mention is sort of like a food chain — those at the top are the ones gathering the majority of the data value, the users and in some cases the revenue.

Twitter is living on their VC cash and most probably some deal with mobile phone services, but I’m just speculating on that last part.

As I said, services like Twitter are really nothing more than conduits, where their real value is their brand perception.

People who’re hooking up somewhere are using Twitter as a virtual “Hi!” and the real conversations are happening on Facebook, or elsewhere.

So while there’s some social networking ties to Twitter, they’re not in the same league as StumbleUpon or Facebook.

Just look at those people using Facebook and Twitter and you’ll see them using the Twitter Application and posting to their Status from Twitter.

In that sense, Twitter is nothing more than an external Facebook Application.

As a service, Twitter has great brand penetration, which will help. But they’re still very vulnerable…

I read that same post about Twitter not lasting because it isn’t making money. I would think that the Twitter guys have to be doing something right because it is so big. Look at all of the new apps and hacks that seem to come out daily. If the Twitter guys were wanting to make money, wouldn’t there be advertising somewhere? Wouldn’t they have a premium service like Pownce does (although I really haven’t figured out why I would want to pay for Pownce)?

If money does come into play, I would see Twitter heading down those routes, and still continue to be a popular network. If that doesn’t work, or for some unknown reason, Twitter does cease to exist, I guess this is why when we befriend or follow someone on one site, we add them to other sites, so we can always track these people we find interesting.

WHEW! OK, working that out sure makes me feel like less of a stalker to some I follow around the internet!!

If I missed the target, I am sorry, it’s still early here!