Twitsper, Group Tweeting App, Could Change Twitter As We Know It

If you have a group of people that all follow the same user, you can get semi-private group messaging by just @reply-ing that user. Others can see it if they go look for it, but it doesn't pollute the timelines of users who wouldn't care about the message.

For instance, in my coworking group, we can all prefix our tweets with @{coworking}, which we all follow. We can all see each others' replies to this common account, but Twitter filters it out for our followers who don't also follow that account.

Isn't this exactly the sort of service that the recently-launched "Path" provides? [1]

[1] From TechCrunch: "Path is designed to share photos with only your closest 50 friends" (http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/14/path-wrong-way/)

In addition, Arrington goes on to mention the following, which I would venture to say also applies in this case:

> I am going to make another prediction. The types of photos people are going to share on Path by and large are going to be the same as the photos you see already in more public photo-sharing apps: meals, drinks, friends, kids, cats, dogs, and the random dross of daily life. Knowing that it is “private” and “safe” is not going to change much of anything.

Those who don't know IRC are doomed to reinvent it... poorly!

"Guided by professors at University of California-Riverside, computer science and engineering PhD students ... built Twitsper ..."

I don't see any inherent research value in this, so it's a little concerning that they had to be guided by professors in order to build this.