Watch The Faves
Twitter appears to be pushing for a closer Facebook experience by introducing tweets in our timelines that we have not requested.
Faves, represented by a small star icon next to a Tweet, are most commonly used when users like a Tweet. Favoriting a Tweet can let the original poster know that you liked their Tweet, or you can save the Tweet for later.
Twitter would like to push Faves to our timelines (Facebook newsfeed, here we come) from accounts we follow or those selected by algorithm for “popularity”. Historically, Faved or starred tweets were always accessible, but required a click or two to get there.
Also historically, our timelines displayed the tweets we wanted to read (aside from ads and retweets). Most users prune their timelines via selective follows, use of lists, 3rd party apps that provide better features, and now Twitter mute functions.
Now, it appears that we can expect to see Faves within our Timelines too. So when someone we follow, faves or stars a tweet, the result is that we get to sift through more noise as we skim through the home timeline. More noise, means we may even prune more accounts – probably not what Twitter wants to encourage in the long run.
On the flip side of the coin, what we Fave gets to be the noise in our follower’s timelines too.
Twitter does not seem to understand that the Fave is used in different ways. It’s not a Facebook Like.
It might be a nod to a tweet, which the originator will probably get notified of, or it could be a form of bookmark to read later or perhaps to reply to later. It might be a way to select sentiment for a future blog post even. It could provide some other type of pseudo-YO function as well. Folks might use the Fave for all of the above too.
So, including Faves in Timelines, just appears to be another stab by Twitter to noise up and dumb down our Timelines.
Here’s some additional insight on this latest A/B tested “feature”.
I simply want to know why Twitter wants to look like Facebook. Is Twitter forgetting that they have a Discover tab for this type of nonsense? At its core, Twitter is useful for so many reasons. Just check out those #Ferguson tweets.
I really hope Twitter doesn’t ruin Twitter.
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