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Twitter Scrambles For Next Big Feature, Bets On Merging Tweets, Hashtags, Moments (adweek.com)

Posted by msmash on from the next-big-thing dept.

Twitter is introducing a long requested feature: A better way to discover people, events and trends. The company is introducing Explore, a tab that the company says will be a home for the most popular and relevant content on the platform. From a report: In a blog post today, product designer Angela Lam said the addition will house Trends, Moments, Search and live video. "Over the past year, we've been exploring different ways to make it simpler for people to find and use Trends, Moments, and Search," Lam wrote. "During our research process, people told us that the new Explore tab helped them easily find news, what's trending, and what's popular right now." Explore -- which will begin rolling out for iOS today and for Android within the next few weeks -- is similar to what Twitter has been testing with some users a few months back. The news also comes just a few weeks after CEO Jack Dorsey used his own account to crowdsource suggestions for what users think Twitter could do to improve the experience.

28 of 47 comments (clear)

  1. Translation: more centralized advertising by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If Twitter follows Facebook's lead, this means redesigning the interface so more paid content is pushed your way, and it becomes harder to actually follow the people you do care about, or non-paid feeds ("those leeches").

    I've pretty much quit social media so lemme know it it goes, 'mkay?

    1. Re:Translation: more centralized advertising by alvinrod · · Score: 1

      The more I've looked at social media the more I've come to believe it's dominated by narcissists (or at least that's the bulk of the traffic), so I don't know if they really care how easy it is to follow other people as they mostly only care about themselves and what they have to say. The non-tech savvy older generation of users have always had to put up with ads so suffering through a few more will be nothing new as long as they eventually get to see the pictures of their grand kids. The younger generation might move on to something new, but they always do that anyway.

    2. Re:Translation: more centralized advertising by GLMDesigns · · Score: 2

      Lots of people use twitter to keep up with political or tech news. I don't know the breakdown between people who keep up / debate events on Twitter and those who post "hey just had pizza at Di Faras".

      I think the later type has moved onto Instagram.

      --
      If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
      Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
    3. Re:Translation: more centralized advertising by tripleevenfall · · Score: 1

      But if everyone leaves Facebook, how will I continue to convert SO MANY PEOPLE to my ways of thinking by repetitively "Sharing" articles about my political beliefs?

    4. Re:Translation: more centralized advertising by GLMDesigns · · Score: 1

      Sh!t. That works for you?

      --
      If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
      Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
    5. Re:Translation: more centralized advertising by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Twitter was a huge graffiti wall for obscenities, insults, fun and telling celebrities and politicians to fuck off - oh and getting into 140 character petty arguments over bullshit.

      Then the professional victims moved in and whined until Twitter gave in - started banning people who were fun and deliberately fucking with hashtags to hide things that SF hipsters didn't approve of.

      I've no sympathy for them. They didn't understand their users, their experience and what made it fun. They listened to those crying and having tantrums... with predictable results

  2. Um, No by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Seriously, no.

    Nobody wants that.

    We do want to edit our own tweets, though.

  3. You mean the Bots will be better able by Tulsa_Time · · Score: 5, Interesting

    to manipulate the trends and drive public opinion...

    --
    5 out of 6 people enjoy Russian Roulette & 6 out of 7 Dwarfs are not Happy
  4. Everything is Snapchat by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    Wow sounds exactly like the stories tab in Snapchat... and should be just as much a wasteland. The strength of Twitter is in the diversity of communication, trying to boil it down leaves a bland and (probably literally) tasteless residue.

    Does Snapchat get a bonus every time the industry follows them like little puppies?

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  5. Scope creep. by jxander · · Score: 2

    Stuff like this will be the undoing of twitter.

    New features will require a lot of coding, testing, promotion, and tweaking down the line. All of which costs money, which drives more advertisements, and eventually drives people away.

    If they had just remained a simple, streamlined service to let people share pithy quips and unironic hashtags, they could easily pay their server costs with a few unobtrusive ads, and remain a relevant (if niche) product for a long time. As it stands, I'll be surprised if they survive another year or two.

    --
    This signature is false.
    1. Re:Scope creep. by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      They have to do something. They're not profitable as they are and slowly becoming obsolete. They can't do nothing. Maybe it will work, or maybe it will speed their demise. Either way, they need to take risks at this point.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    2. Re:Scope creep. by gnick · · Score: 2

      As it stands, I'll be surprised if they survive another year or two.

      As long as it's the primary communications conduit for POTUS, I don't think it's going any where. That's the only reason I use it.

      --
      He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
    3. Re:Scope creep. by religionofpeas · · Score: 2

      They could also go the other way. Right now, the company has 3860 staff and 35+ offices around the world, which sound a bit extensive for maintenance of a simple messaging system. Get rid of most of the people and offices, and keep doing simple stuff.

    4. Re:Scope creep. by jxander · · Score: 1

      Good point ... but it assumes Trump is going to last that long.

      --
      This signature is false.
  6. Best feature they could get by onyxruby · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    By far the best feature that they could possibly get would be remove their political bias. Twitter routinely censors or bans views that don't match their political views. Who seriously thinks excluding a significant portion of the population is a viable business?

    Unfortunately they would rather burn their own house down than be politically tolerant. Political correctness strikes again....

    1. Re:Best feature they could get by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Agreed, need more punching of nazis

      --
      -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    2. Re:Best feature they could get by onyxruby · · Score: 1, Flamebait

      They do allow hate speech and threats against other peoples lives. Twitters double standards on hate speech are well documented:

      http://dailycaller.com/2011/01...
      http://www.breitbart.com/tech/...
      http://www.truthrevolt.org/new...
      http://www.dailywire.com/news/...
      http://www.redstate.com/diary/...

      When you get to define hate speech as speech that disagree with than everything quickly becomes hate speech.

    3. Re:Best feature they could get by squiggleslash · · Score: 2

      I actually wish they'd do what you trolls always claim they're doing. Having Trump kicked out of Twitter would, especially based upon the last two months, make the world immeasurably safer.

      They need to kick him off, permanently.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  7. I have a suggestion.. by wbr1 · · Score: 1

    A block POTUS feature...

    --
    Silence is a state of mime.
  8. Re: How about a feature where you put the @ sign.. by sinij · · Score: 1

    It is too late to fix this now, the only thing left for us to do is tell them to get off our lawn.

  9. #RT@qwertyuiop~122312[aaa by jabberw0k · · Score: 1

    I have been easily reading Perl programs since Reagan was president, but Twitter is still line noise. When will there be a secret decoder ring?

  10. Wrong approach by phantomfive · · Score: 2

    Instead of going for the next 'big feature' they should focus on small, incremental improvements that make the user experience better. That's the kind of thing that keeps your customer base around and slowly expands it.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  11. Re:Trump by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

    I can't wait for the Y2038 bug!

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
  12. Re:One word by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

    Isn't that three words?

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
  13. Re:How about a feature where you put the @ sign... by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

    I don't even know what the fuck you are talking about and that makes me really happy.

    Fuck Twitter.

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
  14. What I want in Twitter by randomErr · · Score: 1

    After the Trump's Twitter-fest dies down in a few weeks Twitter will start losing numbers again. I think Twitter's new feature is too little too late. The features I would like to see is: * RSS Feeds - Bring them back * Longer messages * Render multiple links in an article * Give an option in my timeline for 'people I've liked recently' or the 'whole stream' * Filters on my timeline by subject or word, including exclusions * Let me tag people I'm subscribed to like 'news', 'tech' 'health', 'family', ect.

    --
    You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?
  15. TWTR by neo-mkrey · · Score: 1

    Is it too late to short this stock?

    Because I see this business going downhill quickly.

  16. Twitter is introducing a long requested featur by allo · · Score: 1

    > Twitter is introducing a long requested featur
    No. This wasn't requested by most of the users.

    An edit function, which is still missing, is requested since years.