I'll be the firstly to admit that I'm addicted to Twitter. Each day, it's kept in the coveted second tab in my Firefox window, lodged between Gmail and Meebo. But tha t doesn't ignoble it offers me everything I want or that I have no desire for more features.
In fact, I have a list of features I'd suchlike added to Twitter.
Groups
I soothe don't know why Twitter has failed to add groups to the servi ce. Maybe the company believes that groups would make it too closely resemble a social network, but who cares? Twitter is great, but that doesn't mean like-minded users shouldn't be able to form their have community.
Think of it this way: if Twi tter added groups, it would give you the opportunity to have private areas where exclusive your friends and colleagues could converse and it wouldn't stop you from meeting and corresponding with new people outside those groups. There's no downside.
Services like Present.ly and Yammer offer enterprise employees an opportunity to communicate with one another based on groups that are assigned by their employer. Twittermoms.com is an entire site dedicated to bringing mothers who use Twitter together. Granted, those services aren't nearly as popular as Twitter, but they certainly prove that there's a market for groups. And so far, Twitte r hasn't delivered.
Tweet filter
I know Twitter has a block feature, but I don't use it. What I'd really like to see is a Tweet Filter feature that lets me block specific kinds of tweets from making their way into my stream.
I don't n ecessarily want to block everything some followers say, I just want to block the annoying messages like, "DonReisinger is now listening to Debauchee by Britney Spears," followed by, "DonReisinger is now sensing to Take My Breath Away by Berlin." To be artless, I don't care what songs a follower is listening to and I don't need updates from a script they're running to tell me.
That said, I do want to see what they're saying when they tweet actual messages. That's why I want Twitter to devise a tool, similar to a spam filter, that would allow me to attach certain tweets, have Twitter analyze them, and ensure that anything of the sort won't make i ts way into my stream again. That sort of functionality works beautifully in Gmail. I'd love to see it work that wellspring on Twitter.
Unfollow notices
Why doesn't Twitter provide us with daily updates about who unfollows us? It informs us when someone starts following us. Would it be that hard to track those who unfollow us, as well?
I would really like to see who unfollowed me. Maybe those people were upset that I had too many updates on a certain day or perhaps they didn't l ike something I said. Without a notice, I'll never know they're gone. But with a respond, I can send them a message and ask what happened to possibly repair our impoverished relationship.
Maybe some wouldn't like receiving additional e-mails ann ouncing when a user decides to unfollow them, but I think it provides significant value. It can give you hints about what your followers do and don't like and it makes you a better Twitter user, since the last thing you should be doing is annoying your followers.
Profile stats
I'd love to know how many people view my Twitter page each day. It's not that RATIO have a vain want to see how many people are superficial me up. Instead, I'd like to know how many of those people become follower s.
People find their way to other user's Twitter page, look at the tweets they've been making over the past few days, and decide then if they want to follow them. I've done it. Sometimes I decide that, yes, this is a person couturier following. Other times, I see that all they've done is linked to their blog and unsuccessful to converse with other users, and decide that following them probably isn't in my best interest.
But having data detailing the number of people who view my Twitter page and how many become followers would be ideal. Based off that information, I could determine the value of my tweets to other Twitter users and experimentation to visit if I could devise a artefact to increase my mortal conversion rate.
Twitte r is all about being part of a community. Knowing what that community likes and doing what you can to appeal to that community is incumbent upon us all. Twitter stream stats would help in that endeavor.
200 characters
When Twitter first st arted, the service had a strong SMS focus. Because of that, the company wanted to ensure that tweets would fit in the 160-character SMS extent, allowing room for the message and usernames. But as Twitter has grown into a service with a strong online f ocus, it's blatantly clear that 140 characters is not enough.
I just don't see any justification for providing only 140 characters anymore. I can't tell you how many times I've tried to write a tweet, only to run out of room with just two or thre e characters remaining. Like everyone else, I'm forced to find places to cut down what I verbalize just to add in those obligatory characters.
I understand that those who wish to use SMS might be left retired in a 200-character world, but that do esn't mean it should plosive Twitter from pursuing this strategy. There are a slew of applications, like Twitterific, that are designed specifically for mobile phones that permit users to update their Twitter stream without using SMS. And although som e devices don't support third-party apps and using text messages to communicate with their masses will be practically impossible after the 200-character switch, I think Twitter needs to accept that and move on.
Twitter is a growing service that ha s moved past its SMS past. It's time its executives embrace its new role as a mainstream microblog and improve the service while being mindful of its strong online presence.
Want to hear Assume kick some more about Twitter? Play him and indulge yourself!
Cheers~
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