A new Twitter experiment shares favorites and follows in others’ Twitter streams as if they were retweets – and a vocal group of users aren’t too thrilled about the idea.
The latest experiment fills your Twitter timeline with the activity of the people you follow. This means, specifically, that when those you follow favorite a Tweet or follow a new user, it gets posted on your timeline. Previously Twitter limited tweets in another user’s timelines to retweets from accounts they were following.
The new approach to favorites and follows being tested on an undetermined number of Twitter accounts is somewhat similar to the way Facebook operates all its accounts today. There is, for example, the activity feed on the right side of your news feed where friends’ actions are sometimes displayed. And there are comments made by your friends on other posts that appear in your news feed too from time to time.
Twitter is not Facebook, obviously. But some changes made to the platform recently may indicate the site is moving in that direction. Consider the new look recently given to user profiles on Twitter.
However, there are Twitter users who have voiced strong objections to the new Twitter features, reports The Next Web.
Here are just a few:
Hey @Twitter, when I favorite a tweet it’s because I want to bookmark it, not RT it into someone else’s timeline. That’s what RTs are for.
— Peter Stringer (@peterstringer) August 18, 2014
Why does it show when people favorite other peoples tweets on my timeline now when did I ask for this I never did @twitter
— brandon (@brandontagura3) August 18, 2014
But it seems not everyone is against the size:
i am totally into twitter’s new fav in the timeline system keep up the good work twitter you can even use my tweets as an example
— samir mezrahi (@samir) August 18, 2014
Similarly, on her blog, Margarita Noriega, community editor at Thomson Reuters writes:
“My argument in support of the new functionality is simple. If you are forced to see new tweets that are purely in the control of whom you follow, you will learn more about the behavior of people you follow, and you will gain another entry point to communities that weren’t on your radar before.”
Twitter has tested many previous features including new longer comments for retweets only to have them never fully implemented. It remains to be seen whether shared favorites and follows on Twitter are here to stay.
Twitter Photo via Shutterstock
So, Twitter wants to keep everyone on “tabs” of what’s going on? 😉
The favorite feature (star) is often used as a bookmark for Twitter users. When will Twitter spend some more time on the search function and let us avid users of the service be able to follow new tweeps, after reaching the so-called Twitter follow limit?
I’m open to this new development, but Twitter is steadily becoming more and more like Facebook, just that it’s a mini version.
Aira Bongco
But it will just clutter the timeline. You want to see information that matters to you and not multiple posts about other people. This is a fail for me.
Joshua Sophy
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve liked a Page on Facebook after I’ve seen via my Activity Feed that a Friend liked or commented on it.
I’m following nearly 1,800 accounts on Twitter now. A few more Tweets are hardly going to be noticeable, in my opinion.
I still think Twitter needs to do something with organization and presentation … glad they 86ed the idea of abandoning hashtags, at least.
If you need a clean timeline/stream you may use lists. That is what I do and it is always easy for me to choose a niche I want to follow by switching the list.
I never look at my main twitterstream. Much too fast and cluttered. When using Twitter I inly do it by my lists.
For the new feature I have to say: so far I do NOT really like it but I can see the benefit.
Hmm. I don’t pay attention to the ticker on Facebook. However, I sometimes do notice what my friends comment on and like in my newsfeed, and at times I’ll follow it up. I know that some of my friends do the same with my activity sometimes.
So, we’ll see with this new retweeting addition to Twitter. I’m not sure if I’ll take to it or not. But I’m open to finding out.