Twitter Gets a Tweak

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Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday September 15, 2010 @07:08AM from the now-141-characters dept.

crimeandpunishment writes "Twitter is going multimedia. The text-messaging site has a new look with a new push. There's a new pane, making it easier for users to check out photos and videos (and in doing so, come back to the site more frequently and stay there longer, which of course means more advertising revenue). Twitter co-founder Biz Stone says, 'We are still figuring out all the new possibilities.' The new look is expected to roll out around the world over the next few days."

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Oh, thank you. by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-15 07:09 · Score: 3, Informative

To the kind and wise and benevolent overlords of Twitter, I do humbly beseech you to focus your mighty efforts on correcting a little problem that prevents some of your modest and loyal servants from showing up in the fucking search results.
1. Re:Oh, thank you. by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-15 07:27 · Score: 0
  
  Just more Twitter Twaddle. Who needs it.
2. Re:Oh, thank you. by daveime · 2010-09-15 08:20 · Score: 1
  
  They're probably snowed under reading all the comments from fucking morons who think posting the same "tweet" 400+ times will make them fix the issue faster.
3. Re:Oh, thank you. by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-15 08:43 · Score: 0
  
  That's actually because the stupid comment system is broken. Leave a comment. I dare you.
4. Re:Oh, thank you. by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-15 11:03 · Score: 0
  
  My fucking business name Twitter account is suffering this retardedness. Creating a second lame-name account is a real PITA.
heh by Pojut · 2010-09-15 07:11 · Score: 2, Insightful

I'll tweak your twit!
But seriously though...I use Twitter primarily to follow people (game developers, musicians, etc), and many of these updates make that even easier to do. Overall, pretty happy with what's been done.

--
Living With a Nerd
1. Re:heh by zombieChan51 · 2010-09-15 07:12 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  That's about the sane reason to use twitter. I like following people who are working on projects or movies or something intresting and I can keep myself updated. Following someone who is just going to Tweet how their day was doesn't seem all that intresting.
2. Re:heh by alen · 2010-09-15 07:16 · Score: 1
  
  yep
  it was one thing when there was only twitpic, but now with so many picture and video and other add on services the mobile clients can't keep up and you have to open media in a browser instead of within the tweet
3. Re:heh by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-15 07:17 · Score: 0, Troll
  
  That's about the sane reason to use twitter. I like following people who are working on projects or movies or something intresting and I can keep myself updated. Following someone who is just going to Tweet how their day was doesn't seem all that intresting.
  you know what else isn't even slightly interesting? somebody at Twitter farts and it makes Slashdot headlines.
  
  great, so they made some minor usability improvements. good for them? this needs to be brought before an audience and discussed? really? slow. fucking. news. day. amirite?
4. Re:heh by DerekLyons · 2010-09-15 07:59 · Score: 1
  
  Indeed - I use twitter to follow photographers, and anything that makes external images and media easier to view is a Good Thing.
5. Re:heh by Eponymous+Coward · 2010-09-15 08:21 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Why Twitter rather than RSS? I user a news reader to follow people but I can definitely see the trend is to using Twitter rather than RSS for announcing updates. Since Twitter is closed and RSS is open, this is a little disturbing to me.
6. Re:heh by nine-times · 2010-09-15 08:43 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  I'm guessing it's because it's easier for people. To set up an RSS feed, you generally need to set up a site and set up the feed. Then you need to figure out a way to update that feed, and find software that you want to use to follow other people's feeds.
  Twitter has set up the site and the feed for you. You can get specially built software for your phone to update/follow those feeds, or else you can do it through SMS. And if you want to find other people's feeds, there's a single site you can go to.
  Not that I'm defending Twitter. I don't like Twitter or Facebook or any of those social networking sites, and I think it should all be done with open protocols and open software so you can set up your own sites and configure your own privacy settings. I think most people still wouldn't bother to set up their own site, and would still want some kind of searchable index of people to follow.
7. Re:heh by Huntr · 2010-09-15 09:26 · Score: 1
  
  Same here. I mainly follow about 30 or 40 sports writers and bloggers who use twitter to fire off quick hits of info and comments. I'm not interested in anyone following me and my only tweets are usually in reply to those I'm following about something they have tweeted.
  As to the question below about setting up an RSS feed, I don't know. It never crossed my mind and truthfully, twitter does all I need, which is really very little.
8. Re:heh by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-15 13:22 · Score: 1, Informative
  
  You can get an RSS feed from Twitter. I follow about three people and I don't have an account, I just grab the RSS links and add them to my feed reader.
Limits... by Shadow+Wrought · 2010-09-15 07:12 · Score: 5, Funny

Of course the pictures are limited to 140x140 pixels, and the videos are limited to 140 frames, but, other than that; its an outstanding service!

--
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
1. Re:Limits... by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-15 07:44 · Score: 1, Informative
  
  Apparently, a picture is no longer worth a thousand words, but only 140 characters.
2. Re:Limits... by MobileTatsu-NJG · 2010-09-15 09:52 · Score: 1
  
  Apparently, a picture is no longer worth a thousand words, but only 140 characters.
  I honestly do not understand what it is about this post that's 'informative'. It does an ok job of sounding like something profound, I suppose.
  
  --
  
  "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
3. Re:Limits... by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-15 11:22 · Score: 0
  
  It does an ok job of sounding like something profound, I suppose.
  You on the other hand come off sounding like a cunt.
4. Re:Limits... by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-15 11:37 · Score: 0
  
  Oh, I'm sorry. How insensitive of me. You grew up in the 90's, right? Was I supposed to tell you you're special and that what you said was really really great?
5. Re:Limits... by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-15 12:32 · Score: 0
  
  Hey! What I said was great, you insensitive clod!
6. Re:Limits... by syousef · 2010-09-15 13:50 · Score: 1
  
  Of course the pictures are limited to 140x140 pixels, and the videos are limited to 140 frames, but, other than that; its an outstanding service!
  I hear they're also renaming the site TwitBook.
  
  --
  These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Yay marketers! by GillBates0 · 2010-09-15 07:15 · Score: 1

Here come the 'sponsored' tweets for the twits to watch and twitter about!
Seriously, it was worthless before, now it's more so, except for the marketers and the twits who 'follow' them and think they're all smart and cool for using twitter.

--
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
1. Re:Yay marketers! by Frosty+Piss · 2010-09-15 07:21 · Score: 0
  
  come back to the site more frequently and stay there longer
  No thanks!
  
  --
  If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
2. Re:Yay marketers! by Mike+Kristopeit · 2010-09-15 07:29 · Score: 1
  
  why do you presume to think what others think of themselves?
  i think you're dumb and lame for using slashdot.
  slashdot = stagnated
3. Re:Yay marketers! by NiceGeek · 2010-09-15 07:46 · Score: 1
  
  No one says you have to follow marketers. I've got a core group of friends who are fans of a particular singer and their feeds are usually pretty interesting, and I've actually formed some RL friendships from it.
4. Re:Yay marketers! by Eponymous+Coward · 2010-09-15 08:29 · Score: 1
  
  I think Twitter is talking about inserting ads into the streams of popular users. So, you may not follow a marketer, but if somebody you follow says something about coffee, that tweet could very well be sponsored by Folgers.
5. Re:Yay marketers! by NiceGeek · 2010-09-15 08:41 · Score: 1
  
  *shrug* Twitter has got to make money.
6. Re:Yay marketers! by nine-times · 2010-09-15 08:45 · Score: 1
  
  Wait, they'll be inserting fake tweets into the streams of other people, without those people's consent? Or do we know how this is supposed to work?
7. Re:Yay marketers! by Eponymous+Coward · 2010-09-16 14:43 · Score: 1
  
  People pay Twitter a lot of money for access to the raw firehose. So far, that's where they have been making their money.
Reliability? by Scrameustache · 2010-09-15 07:15 · Score: 0

Oh, pretty pictures, how nice! Now how about you don't failwhale every fucking 20 minutes and you always let me tweet, you unstable piece of fei-yu?
Curmudgeonly yours,
Scram.

--
You can't take the sky from me...
1. Re:Reliability? by Scrameustache · 2010-09-16 06:45 · Score: 1
  
  I'm still getting a dead input-box more often than not on twitter.com, and I'm still not hearing anything about improving reliability in this talk of upgrade to more multimedia.
  And upgrades to more media never meant more reliability, quite the contrary.
  This is cause for concern.
  
  --
  You can't take the sky from me...
Facebook vs. Twitter by iONiUM · 2010-09-15 07:27 · Score: 2, Interesting

I'm going to be honest here, I've used both twitter and facebook. When twitter first launched, my first reaction was "how is this any different than a facebook status?" The sad part is, there still isn't really an answer to that that doesn't start rambling on.
Really, with this update it seems that twitter is converging to a full social network-ish type site, and facebook is already incorporating changes to be more like twitter. Google is trying for both sides (buzz and me). I'm starting to get confused...
1. Re:Facebook vs. Twitter by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-15 07:43 · Score: 0
  
  I link my Facebook and Twitter statuses, but usually stay on Twitter rather than Facebook. That way, I can post status updates to both while still following interesting Twitter users.
  I also link my Google Buzz to Twitter, but it doesn't work quite so well.
2. Re:Facebook vs. Twitter by D+Ninja · 2010-09-15 08:02 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  how is this any different than a facebook status?
  The answer from a semantic standpoint - nothing. The real answer is - Twitter is public by default, while Facebook is private by default (well...security/privacy concerns aside). This changes how people interact. For example, if I want to interact with developers that would otherwise not be interested in work that I am doing, Twitter provides a potential avenue. I can also specifically choose to follow only those people or organizations who I care to learn more about.
3. Re:Facebook vs. Twitter by Eponymous+Coward · 2010-09-15 08:26 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Facebook used to be private by default, but I don't think that's the case any more.
4. Re:Facebook vs. Twitter by daveime · 2010-09-15 08:28 · Score: 1
  
  my first reaction was "how is this any different than a facebook status?"
  Facebook allows you 500 characters for status updates, allowing you to at least form a coherent sentence ?
5. Re:Facebook vs. Twitter by lavacano201014 · 2010-09-15 12:35 · Score: 1
  
  420 characters, but yeah. And I'm more than capable of firing off coherent tweets in 140 characters. Twitter users have no excuse.
  
  --
  A wise man once said, "Where is my other quotation mark?
6. Re:Facebook vs. Twitter by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-15 17:33 · Score: 0
  
  Who the hell is an interesting twitter user? Isn't that an oxymoron?
7. Re:Facebook vs. Twitter by ion.simon.c · 2010-09-15 19:01 · Score: 1
  
  It's pretty public, by default. Check out how many random people's statuses you can comment on:
  http://youropenbook.org/
8. Re:Facebook vs. Twitter by eloki · 2010-09-16 00:21 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  No, the short difference is that friend relationships on Facebook are symmetric but on Twitter they're asymmetric. Just this minor difference changes the usage dynamic. People can be interested in my updates without my being forced to see their updates.
I'm confused by wealthychef · 2010-09-15 07:29 · Score: 1

So a service based on the ridiculous (to me) idea of incredibly short messages is now going multimedia, which is the other complete extreme, a huge use of bandwidth and time. Talk about mission creep.

--
Currently hooked on AMP
1. Re:I'm confused by NiceGeek · 2010-09-15 07:47 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Twitter probably looked at all the 3rd party sites like TwitPic, Twitvid, etc and saw there was a demand.
2. Re:I'm confused by nine-times · 2010-09-15 08:29 · Score: 1
  
  I guess the idea is that people were using the incredibly short messages to link to other content anyway, so they're just making that linked content available without leaving twitter.
3. Re:I'm confused by alen · 2010-09-15 08:37 · Score: 1
  
  twitter was originally designed for kids and serial texters to have a web based view of messages. the fact that it's replacing some forums and google for some things wasn't even dreamed about when the company started up
4. Re:I'm confused by KingAlanI · 2010-09-15 10:33 · Score: 1
  
  Yeah, integrating those features in the site seems better than people linking to sites that Twitter pretends doesn't exist [kinda]
  
  --
  I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
Twitter Overload by Wiarumas · 2010-09-15 08:21 · Score: 1

One of my problems of a user of Twitter is an overload of tweets. So, being the sane person that I am, I have no friends on Twitter other than a few news sources that I enjoy updates from. Its not many... just a couple. However, I receive about a tweet a minute. That's just way too much for me to keep up with and to be honest, I turned off notifications and abandoned it. I really wish they would provide a better way to sort, hide, and manage tweets. Maybe some sort of priority/intelligent system that bumped up new, relevant stuff over the useless but new. While I'm sure some people love having a constant stream of crap being blasted in their face 24/7, I would prefer to filter through the noise for relevance.

--
I will bend like a reed in the wind.
1. Re:Twitter Overload by KingAlanI · 2010-09-15 10:29 · Score: 1
  
  I also have way too fast of a timeline.
  So sometimes I just check the page for a particular feed. That, or just looking at my at replies.
  I also have all of the feeds I'm following grouped into lists; choosing a particular list to look at is an intermediate between looking at my entire timeline and looking at one feed.
  
  --
  I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
Reliability? by Scrameustache · 2010-09-15 09:58 · Score: 0, Redundant

Oh, pretty pictures, how nice! Now how about you don't failwhale every fucking 20 minutes and you always let me tweet, you unstable piece of fei-yu?

--
You can't take the sky from me...
MySpace by christurkel · 2010-09-15 10:02 · Score: 1

So it's becoming MySpace for next (?) generation?

--

CDE open sourced! https://sourceforge.net/projects/cdesktopenv/
Okay... by KingAlanI · 2010-09-15 10:40 · Score: 1

Won't rail about the changes just to rail about the changes.

--
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
1. Re:Okay... by gnapster · 2010-09-18 02:08 · Score: 1
  
  No, the change away from Rails hapenned a couple of years ago. The current changes are not at the framework level.
an even better "Better Twitter" by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-16 01:02 · Score: 0

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Not Found
The requested URL / was not found on this server.
Apache/2.3.8 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.3.8 OpenSSL/1.0.0a Server at twitter.com Port 80