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  • Twitter Killed the Favorite, Now It Needs a Save Button

    Twitter Killed the Favorite, Now It Needs a Save Button

    Twitter just killed the favorite – the star you’ve known and loved for years – and replaced it with a “like” in the form of a heart. Does it change a whole lot? Probably not. Fav’ing wasn’t the most important tweet action anyway. That, of course, goes to the retweet.

    Still, it seems like everyone is pissed. Just take a look at Twitter right now and do your best unscientific poll of user sentiment. The majority of people tweeting about the change are tweeting some level of disapproval. Why is Twitter trying to be Facebook with the “like”? or Why is Twitter trying to be Instagram with that heart or Why the hell did Twitter get rid of something that distinguished itself from the pack? The favorite was pure Twitter, through and through, and now it’s dead.

    Ok fine. It’s dead. Really, everyone will get over it.

    But now Twitter needs to add a “save” button.

    Sure, most of your uses of the favorite star over the years have probably been to show approval someone’s tweet, or agree with it, or like what they’re saying.

    That’s not the only thing Twitter’s fav star was used for, however. A smaller, but still important use of the favorite was to simply bookmark or save a tweet for later. Scrolling through your feed and see a tweet with a recipe you want to make later? Fav it. Scrolling through your feed and see a strange GIF you want to show a friend later? Fav it.

    But there were also the times when you’d want to favorite a tweet that you found awful, repugnant, or otherwise distasteful. Let’s say something that Donald Trump just tweeted. Newsworthy? Sure. I want to save that tweet for later. But do I like it? Do I heart it?

    Probably not.

    Like I said before, people will probably use the heart the same way they use the star – for the most part. But Twitter needs to give users an option to easily bookmark a tweet for later – a sort of “save without endorsement” button.

  • Facebook Tests Saving Stories for Later, Once Again

    Apparently, Facebook is experimenting with the “save” button again.

    Josh Constine over at TechCrunch has acquired some screenshots of the new test, in which Facebook is adding a big ol’ “save” button inside articles shared on the desktop version of the site.

    When users click the save button, the link is put into a “saved” articles section on users’ timelines. In the test, users can also access their saved links from a shortcut on Facebook’s left-hand navigation bar (again, desktop only).

    The idea behind a “save” button is that users could store links that look interesting, but they simply don’t have time to digest at present. It’s a save it for later feature that would allow users to come back to all the content they might have just scrolled past. There’s a lot of stuff on one’s Facebook News Feed, and a saved links folder would help users cut through the clutter.

    If this all sounds familiar, that’s because Facebook has experimented with this same kind of thing before. Way back in 2012, the company tested a “save for later” feature that let users save posts for later viewing. At that time, Facebook tested it on both mobile an desktop. Facebook confirmed to us that they were testing the ability to save News Feed stories with a small percentage of users (the company line)–but then it just went away. Facebook scraps small tests all the time, so this wasn’t that surprising.

    But there’s always been this buzz-phrase around Facebook: “personalized newspaper.” In March of 2012, when Facebook unveiled Interest Lists, the company said that “Interest lists can help you turn Facebook into your own personalized newspaper, with special sections—or feeds—for topics that matter to you.”

    That idea of a personalized newspaper has engendered multiple News Feed tweaks. Facebook even created a standalone app around the idea of a newspaper-like feed of shared stories.

    All I’m saying is that a “save” button seems to fall in line with one of Facebook’s goals. Of course, it’s just a test–and you know what that means.

    Image via TechCrunch