The Good News About New Twitter

In my previous post, you read about what I don't like about the new Twitter functionality. Now I will show you what I do like about it. I shied away from the original version of Twitter at first because I couldn't easily have a back and forth conversation. I had to hunt for the Tweet someone replied to in order to remember the context of what we had been talking about.

The days of hunting for the thread of a conversation are gone. Now, you simply click on the little Talk Bubble that appears in the upper right corner of the Tweet (on mouseover). A Talk Bubble displays only if there was a conversation attached to that Tweet.



It's really nice how the screen doesn't move from your current window. The conversation simply displays in that extra page real estate on the right. If you want the conversation window to close just click on the Talk Bubble again, as show above.

Below is an example of Twitter @Mentions. This function was moved from the side bar to a tab next to your Timeline. It displays Tweets that mention your Twitter handle. Shows who's talking to you, or about you.

Below shows an example of Your Tweets Retweeted. This function wasn't working very well in the original version. Now, it's easy to find which of your Tweets were retweeted and who retweeted them. You will find this feature available as a Tab next to your @Mentions tab.



That wraps up my brief, but hopefully helpful review of the new Twitter. I hope you can now take advantage of all of Twitter's new features, some of which may not be mentioned here. Remember, you can reach anyone in the entire World on Twitter if they use it too. That can be a powerful tool and one worth learning about.

Update: Unfortunately Twitter has been neutered and is no longer effective (see Updates in Part 1 - The Usability of Twitter's New Interface.) Facebook has been bought by Goldman Sachs and Twitter by JP Morgan Chase. I'm calling out to Web Programmers everywhere to develop a simple text-based message system like Twitter. I have many ideas for improving on it that won't take too much Programming time. Let's create a tool that can never be bought. One that will remain open and free, forever.