I don’t get Twitter. No one in my friend circle is on Twitter; it’s a strange place, and people talk about everything from what they are having and where they are heading. It’s all text that is too limited to just 140 characters.
A friend said to me desperately after failed attempts to try using Twitter just like he does Facebook. I agree with him to some extent, because most of my friends are like that. They don’t get Twitter.
Comparing Twitter with Facebook seems like comparing Apples with Oranges though both can be grown in the same orchard, may share the same soil, but are grown in different seasons, look different and taste different.
Sadly it isn’t that simple with Facebook and Twitter. Both are popular Social Networks with millions of users. Only Facebook is a little ahead in the race.
We shouldn’t call it a race, but everybody is trying to make out by seeing recent changes Twitter has been doing to their site.
Ever since Jack Dorsey took the CEO position on Twitter, things have started moving fast for the bluebird. Every day, there is some change in the service. They recently replaced the ‘Favourite’ button with a heart-shaped ‘Like’ button (Facebook has already got one)
Before that, they brought video tweets that auto-play in the timeline (ahem, Facebook has that too)
Twitter Cards have been there for a long time. It simply enabled Web Publishers to enable the post preview when someone Tweets a link from their website. (Something similar to Facebook). This has made Promoted Tweets look like part of the Organic timeline of Twitter.
ALSO READ: Here is what all Facebook has been testing lately.
The best part of Twitter has been its always active timeline, follow a bunch of people, and you will always find a tweet posted a few minutes ago. But, it seems Twitter is messing with it too, they have now started testing non Chronological timeline, showing relevant tweets to you.
Twitter highlights tweets from people with whose tweets you interact with. Behind this is a nasty algorithm that powers this entire thing, just like it does on Facebook, and people hate it. Here is what they say when they find it happening on Twitter.
And then there are Ads; Facebook makes a lot of money by letting Brands and Small Businesses Advertise on their platform. Twitter has also opened its Advertising platform to the general public now.
And Twitter is even trying to get more data from users. It has started asking their B’day.
http://twitter.com/asifahmd/status/674956021928857600
And then Twitter lifted the 140 character limit from the Direct Messages (DMs), and it seems they may increase the 140 character limit of a Tweet. Update: They increased the Tweet limit from 140 to 280 characters.
While changes are good and will help Twitter generate some revenue to operate smoothly and bring more features, people do not like the changes. They want Twitter to stay the same, a 280 character social setwork where people put stuff in real-time.
What’s going to change, and how much of it will stay in the future versions of Twitter? Only time will tell. Till then, enjoy the little messed up Twitter. It’s still fun to use it when there is nothing to do in life.
