BL: December 2008 Archives
So, a few weeks back I sent a friend a link to the initially genius and now futzing around /THE_REAL_SHAQ, the certified legit Twitter existence of Shaquille O'Neil, and she pinged me right back: "What is this? I still don't get Twitter." And while Twitter's recent explosion, especially around the 2008 Election and, then, the Mumbai hotel attacks, is clean and clear evidence that people are starting to understand the service, the girl's got a point. Twitter still hasn't really figured out how to package and present its content effectively.
The product and design guys at Twitter surely have plenty of cool bells and whistles in the works, and I hope one of the things they're focused on is doing a better job of playing up the aggregate power of their service. For example, perhaps one of the key advantages that Twitter has over other social net services is that extensive repurposing of archived content is possible. The minority of 'private' users aside, the one-way Twitter relationship (one doesn't have to follow you for you to follow him) gives Twitter, Inc. tremendous license. Tweets can be packaged and publicly consumed in myriad ways. Such as:
—Here's instant reaction to Mahalo Answers, a Q&A service attached to the currated search service. Answers launches today and the real-time react is in progress.
—Or here's a feed of the search for 'is down' across Twitters. Again, real time, Tweets that use the prase 'is down', which loosely tracks websites that are down.
—Lastly, and more base, a community reaction to the Giants loss to the Cowboys last night. Score, color, fan emotion all available.
The first two of these search feeds were Twitter-suggested, but only via a small sidebar on Twitter's search page (which, see screen grab, is itself barely revealed across the site), the Other Twitter. The third I retrieved manually via search.twitter.com. And even better examples of good meta-Twitters surely exist.
The point is that this type packaging is tremendously powerful and should be one of the key ways Twitter relates to users, both current and potential. Twitterers shouldn't have to switch over to an RSS app to follow any of the feeds like the ones above. Plus—again, using to aggregation to enhance utility for the individual—one click should allow a user to 'follow a feed' or, get this, follow everyone who contributed to a search feed (and to keep profiles clean, how about the ability to follow for a specified length of time?Follow...'for today'...'while trend is hot'...'until manually removed'...). There should be other packaging, too: follow all..."New York shops" or "Giants fans" or "VCs" (in theory, there are lots of cool ways Twitter could curate and fine-tune these with the help of user feedback). It's the difference between a la carte and prix fixe menus—and both should be offered at Twitter.
Yes, there are offerings like /vctips, and, such as we're doing with /eaterny, group Twitters, which pull in content from many users when prompted. Regardless, Twitter, Inc. needs to focus on, and own, meta-Tweet pages, which are highly monetizable (to strengthen this content, maybe even incentivize individuals by giving them pennies any time someone clicks into their Tweet from a meta page?) in myriad ways and fantastically useful in this age of insta-blogging and feed-as-content web consumption. This has surely been suggested elsewhere and, again, Twitter probably has some spectacular stuff in the works. But, right here and now Twitter could come a long way by just getting the right hand to talk to the left hand.
The product and design guys at Twitter surely have plenty of cool bells and whistles in the works, and I hope one of the things they're focused on is doing a better job of playing up the aggregate power of their service. For example, perhaps one of the key advantages that Twitter has over other social net services is that extensive repurposing of archived content is possible. The minority of 'private' users aside, the one-way Twitter relationship (one doesn't have to follow you for you to follow him) gives Twitter, Inc. tremendous license. Tweets can be packaged and publicly consumed in myriad ways. Such as:—Here's instant reaction to Mahalo Answers, a Q&A service attached to the currated search service. Answers launches today and the real-time react is in progress.
—Or here's a feed of the search for 'is down' across Twitters. Again, real time, Tweets that use the prase 'is down', which loosely tracks websites that are down.
—Lastly, and more base, a community reaction to the Giants loss to the Cowboys last night. Score, color, fan emotion all available.
The first two of these search feeds were Twitter-suggested, but only via a small sidebar on Twitter's search page (which, see screen grab, is itself barely revealed across the site), the Other Twitter. The third I retrieved manually via search.twitter.com. And even better examples of good meta-Twitters surely exist.
The point is that this type packaging is tremendously powerful and should be one of the key ways Twitter relates to users, both current and potential. Twitterers shouldn't have to switch over to an RSS app to follow any of the feeds like the ones above. Plus—again, using to aggregation to enhance utility for the individual—one click should allow a user to 'follow a feed' or, get this, follow everyone who contributed to a search feed (and to keep profiles clean, how about the ability to follow for a specified length of time?Follow...'for today'...'while trend is hot'...'until manually removed'...). There should be other packaging, too: follow all..."New York shops" or "Giants fans" or "VCs" (in theory, there are lots of cool ways Twitter could curate and fine-tune these with the help of user feedback). It's the difference between a la carte and prix fixe menus—and both should be offered at Twitter.
Yes, there are offerings like /vctips, and, such as we're doing with /eaterny, group Twitters, which pull in content from many users when prompted. Regardless, Twitter, Inc. needs to focus on, and own, meta-Tweet pages, which are highly monetizable (to strengthen this content, maybe even incentivize individuals by giving them pennies any time someone clicks into their Tweet from a meta page?) in myriad ways and fantastically useful in this age of insta-blogging and feed-as-content web consumption. This has surely been suggested elsewhere and, again, Twitter probably has some spectacular stuff in the works. But, right here and now Twitter could come a long way by just getting the right hand to talk to the left hand.