Winer's argument rides on adding metadata, ergo why the SMS discussion is important. For Google to play in his argument, they need to solve the SMS problem, or ignore it altogether.
The way I see it, since both are communication tools, this is why are equal. They soon diverge. The public and ad-hoc nature is where it is substantially different.
A gross simplification of primary use cases:
IM: 1 to 1, private, active
Email: 1 to 1, private, active
Twitter: 1 to many, public, passive -> active
The passive/aspect of the conversation becomes more organic in a public space -- changes into an active conversation when someone tweets back.
Why would he equate them? Only because it's a textual communication medium, IMHO. GTalk is in a way, an extension of GMail. If you're not there, it pops in your inbox. I don't see Twitter merging with email until it becomes part of the active conversation, something which should be pointedly and purposefully in your inbox.
The way I see it, since both are communication tools, this is why are equal. They soon diverge. The public and ad-hoc nature is where it is substantially different.
A gross simplification of primary use cases:
IM: 1 to 1, private, active
Email: 1 to 1, private, active
Twitter: 1 to many, public, passive -> active
The passive/aspect of the conversation becomes more organic in a public space -- changes into an active conversation when someone tweets back.
Why would he equate them? Only because it's a textual communication medium, IMHO. GTalk is in a way, an extension of GMail. If you're not there, it pops in your inbox. I don't see Twitter merging with email until it becomes part of the active conversation, something which should be pointedly and purposefully in your inbox.