And Finally
Refresh your Twitter timeline twice and if no new content is available, algorithms will inject the Faved tweets of those you follow or which Twitter views as popular.
Perhaps, due to a backlash from Twitter users, the final decision has been made on how the new injection of faved tweets into our timelines will work (see my recent blogs on this topic).
David Holmes on PandoDaily describes it here: Crises Averted?
Dick Costolo from Twitter tweets: The 2x refresh approach
I suppose that I can live with Mr. Costolo’s approach — though some still aren’t too happy about the change, maybe rightly — but it would have been a nice thing if Twitter communicated this approach from the start. Maybe it wasn’t fully baked until Mr. Costolo’s tweet though or the product team had to tweak due to the user backlash — sigh.
I agree with David Holmes that this comes as a bit of a relief knowing that Twitter isn’t trying to hijack the timeline. Also, I too come to Twitter for the raw news rather than Facebook.
However, I disagree about pointing to any benefits of adding Facebook-like algorithms to the timeline for newbies or monetization. Twitter already has two timelines, our home timeline and that Discover one that many don’t use. Keep the algos on Discover and we’ll be happy though. Afterall, there’s growing sentiment against the Facebook newsfeed algorithms these days.
So for now, I rest a bit easier knowing that Twitter is treading lightly with my home timeline.
For those who still don’t like the approach, I do understand because the home timeline should be a wild life preserve. But, maybe we can give Twitter a little slack today for not forcing faved tweets upon our eyes right away — even if the company doesn’t quite get why it’s an issue.
