Pop quiz, hotshot
As quizzing booms online, check out niche themes, new new formats and events where the aim isn’t right answer
It’s been half a godawful year since the launch of Tooter, India’s supposed answer to the American micro-blogging behemoth Twitter. How’s the “Swadeshi social network” faring? It has about 50,000 downloads on the Android PlayStore (it’s still not available for iOS). We signed on to give it a whirl. Read on to see what we found.
The look:
The creators’ (a CEO who goes by @nanda and a company registered in Khammam, Telangana) logic seems to have been that since people know and tolerate Twitter, a rather similar approach would go over well. The logo is a blue conch shell that looks similar in shape and size to the bird. The colour scheme is a similar blue and white, and elements of the interface resemble those of Twitter and Facebook.
Posts are called toots and there’s a blue tick for verified users. Interface-wise, the most desi thing about it would appear to be the conch.
Automatic follows:
As soon as you sign up, your account automatically follows three handles — @News, which will eerily post saffron-tinted articles to your timeline in a steady stream; @Nanda, the account of the Tooter CEO, whose recent posts include details of how you can pay to get a verified handle; and @rvaidya2000, who posts memes and news from across India.
@Nanda, incidentally, is @nanda8tooter on Twitter, where he has just under 5,000 followers and frequently tags Twitter users with larger followings, asking if they will promote Tooter on their Twitter handles.
Many users seem to feel they have got less than they bargained for and, having signed up out of a sense of patriotism, call out into the void from time to time, asking that the site change, add or improve this or that feature. @AwanishGoswami suggests that Tooter “change the name, change the colour or give us the option to change… provide the option to re-toot”.
Referring to the @News feed, @NikinShetty writes that he “would like left leaning or centrist voices too”.
New users are still joining all the time. And Tooter has accounts listed under the handles @narendramodi, @AmitShah, @rajnathsingh, @RahulGandhi, @juniorbachchan, @msdhoni and @imVkohli.
All in all, though, using Tooter feels a bit like wandering into the Twilight Zone. Perhaps this will change as the numbers rise, and it finds its own identity.