For the past few days I’ve been hanging out in Jackson Hole with a bunch of geeks and one thing I’ve noticed over and over is how boring Twitter has gotten when compared to Google+.
Why has Twitter turned boring?
I’ve found several areas:
1. First experience.
2. Pictures and videos.
3. Control over content distribution.
4. No API, no auto pushing of content.
5. Signals are visible from who you excited and pissed off.
6. Auto flowing webpage.
So, let’s take each of these areas on, and talk about what Twitter could do to make users excited again.
FIRST EXPERIENCE
Forget everything you know about social networks. Now, visit my Twitter account. Then visit my Google Plus account.
Which one draws you in more? Which one shows engagement? Which one has a better about page? Which one shows passion, excitement, that something is happening? In all cases, Google+ is blowing away Twitter and it’s not even close.
So, what can Twitter do?
1. Buy Twylah. Look at my landing page there, it’s MUCH better than what’s on Twitter. Then, Twitter should add some stats on each twitterer. Stuff like “how many retweets has she gotten today?” or “how many @ replies does this user answer?” That would make Twitter more engaging and interesting.
2. Completely revamp the list idea in Twitter. If you follow one of my lists, which I’ve spent hundreds of hours on, they DON’T DO S**T ON YOUR ACCOUNT! This is so lame that it, alone, will get me to pour more time into Google+. But, what should they do? First, if you follow a list all those people’s tweets should be added to your home feed. Second, if you follow a list you should be able to send your Tweets to people on just that list. Third, if you follow a list, you should be able to send private messages to those people. Fourth, the people on the list should be able to tell the list itself whether that was OK or not.
3. Get rid of the freaking spam on search and give us amplification abilities and noise controls. Many new users will come because a blogger or someone will say “hey, we’re talking about the new iPad on Twitter.” Have you ever looked at a search for the word iPad? It’s full of crap and spam. There’s no way to say “only show me items written by people with a Klout score of more than 30 (which would get rid of the spam) or there’s no way for me to say “show me only items that say “Apple iPad” and that have a positive sentiment.” If there were, many new users would see the value in Twitter, especially around news and location. Instead, every search I’ve done lately is full of spam. Boring!
PICTURES AND VIDEOS
Google+ has beautiful photos and videos. Twitter? Just page after page of mind-numbing 140 character items. Now, Flipboard demonstrated to all of us that photos and videos CAN be added into the display, and the new Twitter UI does do some of that, but it just isn’t enough. Google+ is blowing Twitter away here.
So, what could Twitter do? Totally rethink the clients it owns, and rethink the stream itself. Let us add photos and videos into each tweet and, even, let us do that outside of the 140 character limit, which would let Twitter continue to blow away Google+ on where it is strong: which is on mobile.
CONTROL OVER CONTENT DISTRIBUTION
Google+ lets me publish a post to JUST A SINGLE PERSON +or+ to a small group of people, or, even, to a circle that has 5,000 members in it. Twitter has no such way to do this.
Why does this make Twitter boring? Well, because, my friends can feel safe sharing, um, “racier” posts with me on Google+ where on Twitter they either need to DM me, which isn’t as good as a group (my other friends can’t say “great photo” for instance) and isn’t nearly as nice.
What can Twitter do? Revamp lists. But Twitter’s management thinks lists suck, so I don’t see Twitter getting this feature anytime soon and that’s really too bad. It’s what will really put Twitter into a box and soon, you’ll see, how this affects search and all sorts of news. This is Twitter’s weakest point, and it will become more and more apparent that Twitter has blown a real opportunity here to make its system more interesting.
NO AUTO-PUSHING OF CONTENT ON GOOGLE+
I look at Twitter and a lot of it has turned into a boring RSS feed. I get items from news organizations, and even people now are using it to automatically Tweet (there are even systems that will send out tweets automatically at specific times). I don’t know who really posted these items, and I don’t get answers back from these people a lot of times because, well, they aren’t even online. Not true over on Google+. At least not yet.
This is one area where I’m not sure how Twitter can help, but Google has chat and “hangout” videoconferencing features, which help me see whether someone is really online and available (even Michael Dell has done a few hangouts and those really get people excited). So, I would add some interactive features into Twitter where the sender MUST be online and there to answer them.
YOU CAN SEE WHO YOU EXCITED AND WHO YOU PISSED OFF (and you can see same for other people)
On Google+ I can see if what you wrote excited or pissed people off. Why? There are comments right underneath it. As a writer this feedback makes Google+ extremely interesting. Why? Because I can change my behavior if I’m pissing people off, and my ego gets fed when I see 3,000 people commented and said “great post.” I am seeing a LOT of engagement on Google+ where on Twitter I can’t see that.
Quick, go visit Mike Arrington’s Twitter account and tell me of his last 20 tweets which ones pissed off the most people? Which ones thrilled the most people. But on Google+ that’s a simple chore.
What can Twitter do? List under each Tweet engagement statistics. How many times was it retweeted? Who retweeted it? Which one caused the most @ replies? What was the sentiment of those replies (there are lots of companies that can tell you whether a reply is positive or negative).
THE POSTS AUTOFLOW
If I open a web browser and put Twitter and Google+ side-by-side, one automatically shows me new stuff, one doesn’t. That makes Twitter look old and crappy. Yes, if you use newer Twitter clients you can get tweets to autoflow, but I’d rather have the web page do this like Google+ does.
Anyway, there are other things, as well. On Google+ the Notification page shows you anytime you get engagement. Twitter has nothing like that. It’s amazing how cool that is.
Are you finding the same thing? So far I’ve been asking the geeks I’m hanging out with here in Jackson Hole and they really are seeing these differences and wonder how Twitter will react to them.
Me too. So, Twitter, what you gonna do to keep from being seen as the most unexciting social network?
UPDATE: Here’s a post about this over on Google Plus so you can see the kind of engagement that I’m getting there.
I like G+ more in many ways than Twitter, but not all.
I wish there was a way to utilize the comment section as maybe a ‘baby circle’ to continue or transform an active comment section into a circle of its own.
Robert,
Totally true about @Twylah:disqus
It’s so much more exciting than what Twitter has going on with their landing page.
I’ve been using Eric’s platform for a while, and I love it.
Here’s my landing page over @Twylah:twitter - http://www.twylah.com/FranchiseKing
The Franchise King®
Joel Libava
While I respect what Twitter has done; however, I believe it expanded well beyond its usefulness - primarily due to a single number: 140. Should be interesting to watch the following: the developer ecosystem, the feature set (and competitor responses), how many people simply drop either FB or Twitter, how many personalities stay loyal to the very end, how many new types of 3rd party apps get developed to mash it all together, and of course, the continual change in the social graph.
the really question is, if G+ had launched a month earlier than it did, maybe Anthony Weiner would still have his job?
Hahaha!
and still the failwhale and drop-down messages saying whoops!, sorry .. stoner company
Agreed. Then maybe they would have taken advantage of some of the best features. I see very little evidence of Facebook benefiting.
Uhm…it was obviously an “Aqui-hire”: Paul Bucheit built them the FB Messaging/Social Inbox thing, and Bret Taylor is now CTO of Facebook. As in CHIEF TECH officer…
Fair enough, I was more talking about how they haven’t incorporated much of what I thought made FF (the product) unique. I understand they were more motivated by the talent.
Thanks Robert for the Twylah plug. Trying our best to add value and make Twitter more accessible and understandable. More than anything, though, really trying to add value to Twitter publishers through increased viewer engagement and through monetization, very much along the lines of this WSJ piece by Rolfe Winkler: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304203304576446084269052592.html
Agree ! Love + over twitter.. I too dont find it exiting anymore.. Nice to read ur stuff on G+…
Great post Robert. I’m glad you take the time out to actually list ideas for improving the service (as you have done in the past). As a Twitter developer I’ve been following their progress closely for several years and unfortunately it just doesn’t seem that many of these ideas are in the cards. They don’t cater to new users and providing a “simple” experience, which is what they believe will continue to drive their growth. Perhaps Google+ will change some of that… it remains to be seen.
In the meantime, I believe there is still room for better Twitter clients to address these problems, and I’ve been building one! Siftee has a few unique features that I think you’d find very appealing: you can tag your tweets and DMs, you can sort your friends and followers by properties like location or when they joined Twitter or better yet their Klout scores, and you can search over your personal streams such as your sent tweets, mentions, DMs and favorites because we archive all that for you automatically.
Moving forward we will definitely implement features to filter streams by Klout score (as you suggested in #3 for dealing with Twitter spam). Another idea is to filter a stream using a list, so you could do something like filter your mentions to only show people in your tech-influencers list or some such.
We’d love to have you (and anyone else reading this) as a beta tester. Check out http://beta.siftee.com/
Orian Marx
Founder / CEO – Siftee
@orian:twitter @siftee:twitter
Well, I don’t really need any of those things you’re talking about — they are for power users, geeks, people aspiring to use these systems as broadcasters to the masses. I will go on using Twitter along with G+ because it’s very spare. It’s very short. I don’t want videos and pictures and demotivators and crap in my view — G+ is just too distended. Shares repeat too much. Instead of clicking one little thing “MENTION” to see if anyone answered my tweet, I get these notifications in Google that say someone answered my post, but then I have to click AGAIN to see it.
I just want one thing from the Twitter devs: stop this top tweet stuff on hashtags. It’s just so uber annoying. It’s like the way Wikipedia always floats to the top of every damn search merely because people link it because they see it. when you are trying to follow an emergency or a news event or a crisis, it’s damn annoying to see at the top of the feed the “leader boards” of whoever got most retweeted. That might be the government spinning something. That might be some wild anarchist sowing rumours. I just want to see what is new and FRESHEST on a disaster like a terrorist attack or mass demonstration, I don’t want to keep those same damn top tweets in the view.
A picture and Video Support would be surely awesome. along with the stats.You are so true .Loved the post
If you’re finding Twitter boring, it’s because you’re following boring people.
I actually think G+ is a bigger threat to WordPress or Tumblr than it is Twitter or Facebook. I’m not convinced long form social networking really has a place outside of a small minority of bloggers and self-promoters. It’s too much work – both in the doing and the receiving. ‘Normal’ people simply don’t have the time to spend hours each day making and reading long posts and comments, whereas Twitter’s speed and efficiency therein is still a huge advantage. And Google+ isn’t different enough to Facebook to challenge it.
Sure, it looks popular now but it’s deceptive, as the combination of invite-only and massive enthusiasm by already well-followed tech superstars is illusionary. Remove those guys from your feed and it’s a ghost town. Follow more than a couple of them and the noise becomes overwhelming. This is a huge problem going forward.
Agree. That’s Why people tell that G+ is a Twitter killer.BUT Google has a Long proven record of “Pissing people with privacy”.But twitter still leads on these categories
1)Search (Some times it works)–Any body head of G+ search?
2)Twitter’s Power full API graph.(Should wait till G+ releases one)
most importantly
Both Twitter and G+ doesn’t control the Noise inside it(Till date)
So lets see who wins in the long race
More features more features more features. What else would you expect from a pundit who hasn’t actually built anything of value? Mr Scoble is an ideas man. That amounts to very little.
me too
Quite interesting article though twitter doesn’t have the facility of placing videos or pictures people can submit respective url’s which can direct them to respective video or a picture yes from user experience point of view google plus certainly far better but guys think on this twitter a micro blogging site and google plus on other hand a complete social networking platform.Lets hope with passing sands of time twiitter might come with some interesting strategies.
Well found a interesting webinar link http://cms.edynamic.net/Driving-the-Conversion-Engine.aspx, this is on Website Conversion Best Practices for B2B Technology Firms, for more details visit url pasted above.
I’m really interested in what’s going on at Google+ and I’m pretty active there but – I have to say – the long comment threads there are totally overwhelming and most of the comments I’m seeing there don’t add much value. All they do is make the place look like a lot of work and it makes the stream not scannable at all. When I go back to Twitter it looks cleaner, more current, and I get much more value out of my time spent on Twitter compared to Google +. Like I said, it’s still early for Google+ but it’s not scaling well for me right now. Google+ is not a Twitter killer just like FriendFeed was not a Twitter killer.
I just got invited to Google + and i thought I would Plus 1 this so it appears on my page … uh oh, I can only share on Twitter and Facebook.
The Irony.
the big mistake for twitter would be to try to match up feature for feature with facebook and google+. twitter is a great short-burst communications, one-to-many medium – they need to build on that core differentiation rather than cluttering up their interface. i like the idea of more statistics.
the beauty of google when it came out was that it was simple, powerful, uncluttered versus yahoo. more importantly, it was different. i hope you’re not advocating that twitter join the arms race between facebook and google.
>>>and my ego gets fed when I see 3,000 people commented
That’s your idea about drawing people in? Making people read 3,000 bong hits to your ego?
This entire approach centers around *you*, not everyday people.
I’ve already covered what Twitter has to do. See better ideas here:
What A Twitter For Grown-Ups Could Look Like
http://mikecanex.wordpress.com/2011/07/10/what-a-twitter-for-grown-ups-could-look-like/
Why Twitter Should Buy webdoc If Apple Won’t
http://mikecanex.wordpress.com/2011/07/09/why-twitter-should-buy-webdoc-if-apple-wont/
And really, Klout scores? Mine is 55. It’s meaningless. So is yours.
Dear Twitter do nothing. Ignore everything on this page. Thx.
Dear Twitter do nothing. Ignore everything on this page. Thx.
It sounds like you are asking Twitter to undo everything that’s gotten them where they are today. Simplicity. And information distilled down as small as possible to still convey a message.
Well, what made Henry Ford are the same things. Today’s cars are far more complex and are much more enjoyable to drive than the Model A that made Ford a household name. Times change and it’s time for Twitter to change too.
The car didn’t transform into something it’s not though, the car Evolved. If the car had suddenly decided to change into an airplane it wouldn’t meet the needs of most people. Twitter is the same way, they can Evolve into somthing better but they can’t change their core purpose, core simplicity. 37signals is a simple service but yet has evolved into something that still meets most people’s needs.
The car didn’t transform into something it’s not though, the car Evolved. If the car had suddenly decided to change into an airplane it wouldn’t meet the needs of most people. Twitter is the same way, they can Evolve into somthing better but they can’t change their core purpose, core simplicity. 37signals is a simple service but yet has evolved into something that still meets most people’s needs.
The comparison between your two pages didn’t leave me in raptures about Google + The page looked messy, long and convoluted…..and I wasn’t inspired to even bother reading it.Twitter is short, to the point and you can run your eyes down the script and pick out which posts you want to follow further at a glance. Boring? I don’t find Twitter boring…….but I only follow people that are of interest.The beauty of Twitter is the 140 characters…people have to think about what they are saying. Social networking can be a huge time waster and take people from the real work of their websites and businesses.Twitter works well.
Yes and it isn’t impossible.
I check my inbound list every other day and it has a couple of hundred active users. Out of that small list I miss a good portion of updates, but at least I feel a connection to the sources. With 32k updaters it must be tough to get to know users, their motivations, and their specialties.
Twitter functions differently for different folks. One size fits doesn’t appeal to everyone.
As always Robert you nailed it. Smart advice.
Personally I think Twitter needs to stay as is … lean. Leave the longer busy “noise” to G+ and Facebook since most social network users are going to have a couple tools anyway. I don’t currently see a beat them all one client. (the same advice applies to other software from browsers to programming tools … give me a couple – one full featured and one simple, thin and lean)
I agree. Don’t mess with Twitter. It is what it is and that’s the way I like it.
Um, am I one of the only people here who has not signed up as a “Yes Man” to this post?
Comparing Twitter to G+ is like comparing a search engine to a website.
I can’t even begin to explain on how many levels this post is just simply wrong.
G+ is nothing more then a social tool too maintain communications within inner circles of preferred relationships. I may follow some people on Twitter, but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to enlist them into one of my G+ circles.
Google+ appears to be more intimate while Twitter is simply a light-weight portal to access information. I may retrieve this information from close friends or distant strangers.
If you are using Twitter correctly, chances are that Twitter may not be an intimate encounter for you. Of course you can Tweet up with your friends and relatives, but Twitter is about milking the Internet and more importantly the world for commerce of “value”.
If you are using Twitter correctly, you can extract powerful bits of information and data touch points that you can use to bring betterment to your life and/or work craft.
Google+ simply allows me to post and more importantly expound on things that I find interesting and to push that info to an inner crowd source. I have to maintain these groups and what it is that I believe these groups would find valuable.
With Twitter, nothing needs to be maintained. I have followers who for some reason find me intriguing and they sign up to receive more bits of info that represent me.
Within seconds I can post a tweet, have that tweet re-tweeted, favorited, with all links accessed in record time.
To say that Google+ has made Twitter boring is completely off. Google+ actually enhances Twitter because now I have even more reason to use the portal transportation capabilities of Twitter to push these people to my Google+ account. In other words, it’s nothing more then business as usual. I’m doing absolutely nothing different from what I was doing before.
Twitter has also caused a paradigm shift in terms of communication. Gone are the days when we inquire what people are doing. Technology has caused mankind to become somewhat narcissistic in regards to communication. So in other words, I’m not too concerned about what you’re doing, I’m simply telling you what I’m doing. I’m pushing information initially instead of pulling it in. Or am I?
You see people who know how to use Twitter properly know that as long as I’m pushing information to others who are like minded and pushing their information, I will always be “pulling” information as a result (think about it.)
Google+ is awesome and I luv it. But there’s too much maintenance involved.
Long live Twitter, the fastest, most effective and most used social tool that allows me to be me.
I don’t have to tweet and then decide what circle to assign that tweet or pic to, I simply post and the world decides if I’m worthy enough to follow.
On the other hand, if you want to hang out with me specifically and have a more intimate relationship, look me up on Google+ and I’ll decide if I want to let you into my circle
Um, am I one of the only people here who has not signed up as a “Yes Man” to this post?
Comparing Twitter to G+ is like comparing a search engine to a website.
I can’t even begin to explain on how many levels this post is just simply wrong.
G+ is nothing more then a social tool too maintain communications within inner circles of preferred relationships. I may follow some people on Twitter, but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to enlist them into one of my G+ circles.
Google+ appears to be more intimate while Twitter is simply a light-weight portal to access information. I may retrieve this information from close friends or distant strangers.
If you are using Twitter correctly, chances are that Twitter may not be an intimate encounter for you. Of course you can Tweet up with your friends and relatives, but Twitter is about milking the Internet and more importantly the world for commerce of “value”.
If you are using Twitter correctly, you can extract powerful bits of information and data touch points that you can use to bring betterment to your life and/or work craft.
Google+ simply allows me to post and more importantly expound on things that I find interesting and to push that info to an inner crowd source. I have to maintain these groups and what it is that I believe these groups would find valuable.
With Twitter, nothing needs to be maintained. I have followers who for some reason find me intriguing and they sign up to receive more bits of info that represent me.
Within seconds I can post a tweet, have that tweet re-tweeted, favorited, with all links accessed in record time.
To say that Google+ has made Twitter boring is completely off. Google+ actually enhances Twitter because now I have even more reason to use the portal transportation capabilities of Twitter to push these people to my Google+ account. In other words, it’s nothing more then business as usual. I’m doing absolutely nothing different from what I was doing before.
Twitter has also caused a paradigm shift in terms of communication. Gone are the days when we inquire what people are doing. Technology has caused mankind to become somewhat narcissistic in regards to communication. So in other words, I’m not too concerned about what you’re doing, I’m simply telling you what I’m doing. I’m pushing information initially instead of pulling it in. Or am I?
You see people who know how to use Twitter properly know that as long as I’m pushing information to others who are like minded and pushing their information, I will always be “pulling” information as a result (think about it.)
Google+ is awesome and I luv it. But there’s too much maintenance involved.
Long live Twitter, the fastest, most effective and most used social tool that allows me to be me.
I don’t have to tweet and then decide what circle to assign that tweet or pic to, I simply post and the world decides if I’m worthy enough to follow.
On the other hand, if you want to hang out with me specifically and have a more intimate relationship, look me up on Google+ and I’ll decide if I want to let you into my circle
Um, am I one of the only people here who has not signed up as a “Yes Man” to this post?
Comparing Twitter to G+ is like comparing a search engine to a website.
I can’t even begin to explain on how many levels this post is just simply wrong.
G+ is nothing more then a social tool too maintain communications within inner circles of preferred relationships. I may follow some people on Twitter, but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to enlist them into one of my G+ circles.
Google+ appears to be more intimate while Twitter is simply a light-weight portal to access information. I may retrieve this information from close friends or distant strangers.
If you are using Twitter correctly, chances are that Twitter may not be an intimate encounter for you. Of course you can Tweet up with your friends and relatives, but Twitter is about milking the Internet and more importantly the world for commerce of “value”.
If you are using Twitter correctly, you can extract powerful bits of information and data touch points that you can use to bring betterment to your life and/or work craft.
Google+ simply allows me to post and more importantly expound on things that I find interesting and to push that info to an inner crowd source. I have to maintain these groups and what it is that I believe these groups would find valuable.
With Twitter, nothing needs to be maintained. I have followers who for some reason find me intriguing and they sign up to receive more bits of info that represent me.
Within seconds I can post a tweet, have that tweet re-tweeted, favorited, with all links accessed in record time.
To say that Google+ has made Twitter boring is completely off. Google+ actually enhances Twitter because now I have even more reason to use the portal transportation capabilities of Twitter to push these people to my Google+ account. In other words, it’s nothing more then business as usual. I’m doing absolutely nothing different from what I was doing before.
Twitter has also caused a paradigm shift in terms of communication. Gone are the days when we inquire what people are doing. Technology has caused mankind to become somewhat narcissistic in regards to communication. So in other words, I’m not too concerned about what you’re doing, I’m simply telling you what I’m doing. I’m pushing information initially instead of pulling it in. Or am I?
You see people who know how to use Twitter properly know that as long as I’m pushing information to others who are like minded and pushing their information, I will always be “pulling” information as a result (think about it.)
Google+ is awesome and I luv it. But there’s too much maintenance involved.
Long live Twitter, the fastest, most effective and most used social tool that allows me to be me.
I don’t have to tweet and then decide what circle to assign that tweet or pic to, I simply post and the world decides if I’m worthy enough to follow.
On the other hand, if you want to hang out with me specifically and have a more intimate relationship, look me up on Google+ and I’ll decide if I want to let you into my circle
Um, am I one of the only people here who has not signed up as a “Yes Man” to this post?
Comparing Twitter to G+ is like comparing a search engine to a website.
I can’t even begin to explain on how many levels this post is just simply wrong.
G+ is nothing more then a social tool too maintain communications within inner circles of preferred relationships. I may follow some people on Twitter, but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to enlist them into one of my G+ circles.
Google+ appears to be more intimate while Twitter is simply a light-weight portal to access information. I may retrieve this information from close friends or distant strangers.
If you are using Twitter correctly, chances are that Twitter may not be an intimate encounter for you. Of course you can Tweet up with your friends and relatives, but Twitter is about milking the Internet and more importantly the world for commerce of “value”.
If you are using Twitter correctly, you can extract powerful bits of information and data touch points that you can use to bring betterment to your life and/or work craft.
Google+ simply allows me to post and more importantly expound on things that I find interesting and to push that info to an inner crowd source. I have to maintain these groups and what it is that I believe these groups would find valuable.
With Twitter, nothing needs to be maintained. I have followers who for some reason find me intriguing and they sign up to receive more bits of info that represent me.
Within seconds I can post a tweet, have that tweet re-tweeted, favorited, with all links accessed in record time.
To say that Google+ has made Twitter boring is completely off. Google+ actually enhances Twitter because now I have even more reason to use the portal transportation capabilities of Twitter to push these people to my Google+ account. In other words, it’s nothing more then business as usual. I’m doing absolutely nothing different from what I was doing before.
Twitter has also caused a paradigm shift in terms of communication. Gone are the days when we inquire what people are doing. Technology has caused mankind to become somewhat narcissistic in regards to communication. So in other words, I’m not too concerned about what you’re doing, I’m simply telling you what I’m doing. I’m pushing information initially instead of pulling it in. Or am I?
You see people who know how to use Twitter properly know that as long as I’m pushing information to others who are like minded and pushing their information, I will always be “pulling” information as a result (think about it.)
Google+ is awesome and I luv it. But there’s too much maintenance involved.
Long live Twitter, the fastest, most effective and most used social tool that allows me to be me.
I don’t have to tweet and then decide what circle to assign that tweet or pic to, I simply post and the world decides if I’m worthy enough to follow.
On the other hand, if you want to hang out with me specifically and have a more intimate relationship, look me up on Google+ and I’ll decide if I want to let you into my circle
Twitter is playing a completely different ballgame than Facebook and Google+; it is unfair to compare the two. Anyone looking to read a comparison between Google+ and Facebook should check out this post on Fiberlink’s website: http://links.maas360.com/googleplus
I agree with much of what you said but the reason I like lists is because I can keep my timeline clean but maintain the ability to refer to specific user groups. Specifically, I like RSS accounts as long as I can maintain them in a list.
I am really happy you are not actually designing or writting specs for products.
I also admire how easily you milk one cow, then move on the next one, killing the hand that graceously fed you.
Anyhow, lets go over your suggestions:
Then, Twitter should add some stats on each twitterer. Stuff like “how many retweets has she gotten today?” or “how many @ replies does this user answer?”
Do you have this on wave? Now, because of the different clients and the anatomy of a tweet something send to @scobleizer, might not necessary be recorder as reply. What if it is just a mention (the first time you send an @somebody:twitter ), so you see it gets complicated and twitter is not complicated, or least so they claim.
Why should I be able to DM an entire list I’ve subscribed to? So much spam it will generate… I am a follower, not a source in that list.
Search is quite good, half of the stuff if not more you mention is available in the advanced. Is google search any better? No spam and SEO optimized sites on top you say?
The list goes on and on…
This assumes that you have ability/mandate/time to spend all your time Tweeting or Google+ing. But the fact is that +versations are still siloed. You have to go to g+ to see anything there. It’s outside of my workflows at least, and no more integrated in my day-to-day than Facebook. When g+ integrates with the rest of the social world and gets apps to extend it in interesting ways, it’s a distraction for me.
That’s what Twitter has going for it. It’s the cacophony that is its virtue. Pop in, see what’s up, move on. Have an app open in the background. Use Tweetdeck to monitor a dozen or more streams at once. Yes, you miss 99.9% of what’s coming through, but that’s not the point.
Google+ is really one big robust forum, with easy addition of images and video. Nice. But when it starts to find relevance in what exists already, then it can start to take off. But it has to work for the casual user. You, Robert, are not a normal user. Your use cases may be well solved by g+, but what about geeks who don’t communicate for a living? What about non-geeks? I think that’s still as yet unproven, and perhaps we won’t know for some time yet.
Putting engagement stats under each tweet is an interesting idea. They are now surfacing “top tweets” in search results, and it’s definitely amplifying them (just got retweeted 200 times because one of my tweets was sitting at the top of a trending topic search). But Twitter is meant to be fast, and I don’t want to pay attention to just the best tweets because that way I’d miss out on so much!
Don’t agree that Twitter is getting boring; but do agree that it could be doing MUCH more. I’ll feel like it’s eons at a time before they make any major product upgrades. The suggestions in this post are money. — williamjohnson.ca
Great post! Some of my suggestions for Twitter here http://girishrao.wordpress.com/2011/06/24/why-twitter-needs-to-dig-deeper/
All you have to do is add everyone to a single circle and then it is as easy as Twitter.
u mad?
he mad.
Thanks. Very good points. Never considered that Google+ and Twitter could be side by side comparisons and perhaps they can’t but I really do like your suggestions to make Twitter more social and interactive. They do have an amazing opportunity to take Twitter far higher.
Scoble, what would help your Twitter page is getting a new background. Having the same picture tiled is just tacky. I mean, who does that? It takes away from the rest of the page.
Twitter has been boring to begin with for me, but that is because I am learning it for the first time. I have been amazed how many useful resources are shared in it, but these can be shared anywhere else as well.
Twitter has been boring to begin with for me, but that is because I am learning it for the first time. I have been amazed how many useful resources are shared in it, but these can be shared anywhere else as well.
After a while Twitter does get to be a bit 1-dimensional. G+ is starting to pull me away from both Twitter and Facebook more and more. Engagement within G+ is much more robust.
There are two basic types of people on Twitter:
1) People who follow a small number of people (dozens or hundreds) and read all, or most of, what is shared. To them, Twitter is like a book where you want to read every page and you make sure you don’t miss anything.
2) People who follow thousands and for them, Twitter is like a river – you step in, you absorb a lot while you’re there, and you step out. What continues to flow when you’re gone is lost.
Neither is right or wrong, and of course there are nuances in between. I’m the first kind of person. I follow a small number of people or companies that I want to deeply engage with, reading and interacting with everything they do. For me, using Twitter in that way makes far more sense than the other option.
Robert well said. i have been a Twitter user since the beginning. I am now an enormous Twylah fan and wonder WTF is taking Twitter so long to add move value the way Twylah does. The SEO alone that we are getting off the Twylah pages is significant let alone the ability to create real value out of all my and MediaTrust’s twitter stream….
Twylah could be what Blogger was to Google….