Why Twitter timeline changes are not a bad thing
Twitter is now adding content it thinks you would like to see into your home timeline. Despite many people crying foul, I think this move may be a positive one for all Twitter users, new ones and veterans.
Until now, your home timeline has displayed only tweets from Twitter users you have chosen to follow. You may have seen some tweets from users you did not follow in the form of re-tweets or paid for promoted tweets. But that was it.
As TheNextWeb’s Josh Ong (@bejingdou) and ReadWrite’s Selena Larson (@selenalarson) report, Twitter is going to expand what you see in your timeline to items shared by other than those you follow.
As Twitter explains in the updated definition of its timeline, when Twitter sees content that is popular or relevant, they may add it to your timeline.
This means you will sometimes see Tweets from accounts you don’t follow. We select each Tweet using a variety of signals, including how popular it is and how people in your network are interacting with it. Our goal is to make your home timeline even more relevant and interesting.
Though we’ll have a Facebook-like mix of opt-in and recommended content, as Ong suggests, the resulting timeline is a far cry from Facebook. Facebook is only displaying content its algorithms select (something I am fine with that others object to). Twitter is using its algorithms to slightly complement the items you receive from those you follow.
Ong nails that “Twitter is betting its future on its data curation, rather than our manual curation.” There is so much stuff out there we are better to have machines anticipate what we want to see than to try to manage info on our own.
Newspapers had editors to select the news. We liked that as opposed to a raw feed. We don’t want such editorial control from Twitter, but we need a crutch.
There may also be breaking news, or at least breaking in our niche, that people would like to see. It’s almost impossible not to see breaking news on Twitter anyway, but for those new to Twitter and who haven’t started following a lot of people, this will help with breaking items.
Speaking of new users, Larson reports the timeline change is an effort to make the platform easier for new users to discover new people or brands to follow. I like that. The more people using Twitter, the better the info we’ll receive (as it’s curated) and the better the connections we can make.
Not everyone’s happy, per Larson.
While the timeline change may be a welcome gift to newbies, it’s an off-putting feature for hardcore Twitter users. Many people who are used to Twitter have already carefully pruned their follow lists to minimize the odds of seeing tweets from people and topics they aren’t interested in.
I have seen similar complaints on Twitter.
Get over it.
It’s not a big deal and the folks at Twitter, who have grown this company to heights no one could have imagined, may actually know what they are doing. Changes happen all the time with social networks. People grumble for a while and the world moves on. In the the vast majority of cases the network becomes more valuable to users.
I’m with Ong that Twitter deserves your respect, even if you want to give it begrudgingly. This incredibly valuable thing is free.
You are getting news and information faster than you ever have before. News and info that’s coming from people on the spot who had no way to share news and info with the world. You’re connecting with people and building relationships personally and as part of your job everyday through Twitter.
Now you are complaining of one small change? A change you may come to like.
I’ll not be effected much here if I keep using Twitter as I have. I really don’t follow the 660 people I “follow.”
I check my home timeline little, if ever. I share items on Twitter and I see how people reply to what I share. I often engage the people who reply, retweet, or favorite things I share. I look at my Twitter lists some and every once in a while check the home timeline.
Who knows? With the Twitter changes I may start using the home timeline more.
For the grumblers, why don’t you hold off complaining until you see how things go. We don’t need to scare unknowing people from using social networks like Twitter because they hear there’s something sinister going on. Especially in the law, where social networking paranoia runs wild.
Image courtesy of Flickr by Twitter