WebProNews

Tag: timelines

  • Twitter’s New ‘While You Were Away’ Feature Is a Smart Move to Keep People Interested

    It’s easy to get lost in the Twitterverse.

    I’m not just talking about the the nearly 300 million-member community as a whole, but also your own Twitterverse – comprised of the people you follow. It could be 100 people, it could be 1,000. Unlike Facebook, which doesn’t show you all the posts coming in from all of your contacts, Twitter has always been a unmitigated content delivery system. For better or for worse, your Twitter stream contains it all – every post from everyone you follow.

    And unless you’re checking Twitter constantly, it’s very easy to miss something important.

    That’s what makes Twitter’s newest timeline tweak smart. The social network has begun to roll out a new ‘While You Were Away’ feature that automatically surfaces tweets that you might have missed to the top of your timeline.

    Here’s how it works, from Twitter:

    “A lot can happen while you’re on the go. To fill in some of those gaps, we will surface a few of the best Tweets you probably wouldn’t have seen otherwise, determined by engagement and other factors. If you check in on Twitter now and then for a quick snapshot of what’s happening, you’ll see this recap more often; if you spend a lot of time on Twitter already, you’ll see it less.”

    The ‘While You Were Away’ feature is now live on iOS, and is coming soon to Android and desktop.

    Is this the Facebook-ization of Twitter? Not really. Yes, it’s an algorithmic tweak (and Twitter’s not too forthcoming on how it’s going to work – other factors?), but Twitter’s not deciding what content you see or more importantly – what content you don’t see.. It’s all still there in your timeline if you want to scroll through it. Twitter’s just surfacing tweets that it thinks you’d be sad to have missed. How sweet of you, Twitter.

    Of course, this could all change when Twitter is 100 percent sure than while I was away, I wanted to see an ad for Chobani yogurt.

    Twitter’s been making small changes to the timeline for months now, and we knew this one was coming. This is not a big algorithmic shift to Twitter that has been discussed and is mostly feared. What it is is a pretty smart way to keep people who aren’t constantly checking Twitter engaged.

    Image via Twitter

  • Your Twitter Timeline Clutter Isn’t Going Away

    Your Twitter timeline has evolved, and those tweets from random users (that you don’t follow) are probably there to stay.

    In a post titled “The spirit of experimentation and the evolution of your home timeline”, Twitter’s Trevor O’Brien says that most users enjoyed seeing tweets from accounts they didn’t follow, and that it’s one of those experiments that’s going to be sticking around as a permanent feature.

    “We constantly try new experiments around here, which serve to inform the evolution of the product…” says O’Brien. “For example, we recently ran experiments that showed different types of content in your timeline: recommended Tweets, accounts and topics. Testing indicated that most people enjoy seeing Tweets from accounts they may not follow, based on signals such as activity from accounts you do follow, the popularity of the Tweets, and how people in your network interact with them. These experiments now inform the timeline you see today.”

    For a long time, Twitter has displayed tweets from people you don’t follow in your timeline – in the form of retweets and promoted tweets (ads). More recently, the company began showing curated content in users’ timelines – basically popular stuff that Twitter thinks you’d like from users you don’t follow.

    Here’s how Twitter describes its process:

    When we identify a Tweet, an account to follow, or other content that’s popular or relevant, we may add it to your timeline. This means you will sometimes see Tweets from accounts you don’t follow. We select each Tweet using a variety of signals, including how popular it is and how people in your network are interacting with it. Our goal is to make your home timeline even more relevant and interesting.

    When it comes to what you want to see when you open your Twitter app, Twitter clearly believes it knows what’s best.

    Another one of these experiments that ruffled some feathers recently was the showing of favorited tweets in timelines – as in showing people who follow you the tweets you’ve favorited in their timelines, basically like retweets.

    Twitter CEO Dick Costolo clarified things a bit when he suggested that Twitter would only show stuff like that when it doesn’t have anything better to show – meaning you’ve already consumed all the content available to you and there’s nothing left in your stream.

    But for now, you’re going to keep seeing tweets in your timeline that you didn’t ask for. It’s like ads, but Twitter’s not trying to sell you any product except Twitter itself. Things may get a little cluttered, but it probably won’t be as bad as you think it’ll be.

    Image via Thinkstock

  • NFL Football Kicks Off Tonight, and Twitter Wants You to Follow the Action There

    Twitter wants you to run to Twitter when something big is happening on TV, and have been pushing that coveted ‘second-screen’ experience for years. Today, Twitter has furthered that goal by creating new NFL-specific timelines so fans can stay up-to-date on what everyone’s saying about every game.

    Set up at #NFL, Twitter’s new main NFL timeline features football-related tweets from “people in your network, along with relevant Tweets from teams, players, coaches, press, fans and celebrities.”

    That’s useful in its own right, but what’s even more useful, potentially, are the game-specific timelines Twitter has unveiled. Accessible via the main #NFL page or by searching for team name vs. team name (#SeahawksvsPackers or #SEAvsGB, for instance), the specific timelines will feature the same customized tweet stream, but with its entire focus on each individual game.

    Twitter’s done this before – with the World Cup – so it’s not surprising that the company would tap into the sure-to-be huge opening of the NFL season. The new timelines are active now, and will be throughout the season.

    Right now, they’re only available on Twitter.com and iPhone, but Twitter says they’ll be up on Android soon.

    Image via Green Bay Packers, Twitter

  • Bing Adds Timelines To Search Results

    Bing Adds Timelines To Search Results

    Timelines are like the cliff notes of history. They give us a succinct look into the events that shaped the lives of the people around us. Now they’re coming to Bing.

    Bing announced today that its adding timelines for famous people to its side bar search results. The timeline will offer up a brief history of the person’s life through a list of events that helped shape who they were/are. Here’s an example of what it will look like:

    Bing Adds Timelines To Search Results

    Interestingly enough, Bing will not be sharing Timelines for famous persons whose works are more searched for than their lives. For example, musician and actor searches will return their body of works instead of a timeline as Bing’s algorithm has found that those searching for these people are more interested in their work than their lives. Here’s an example:

    Bing Adds Timelines To Search Results

    Bing says its algorithms have generated timelines for about 500,000 famous people so far. More will be added in the future, but let’s see if Bing returns a timeline for some lesser known and foreign famous folks:

    Todd Smith – Frontman for Dog Fashion Disco and Polkadot Cadaver

    Bing Adds Timelines To Search Results

    Willard Scott – Creator of Ronald McDonald

    Bing Adds Timelines To Search Results

    Masamune Shirow – Author of Appleseed and Ghost in the Shell

    Bing Adds Timelines To Search Results

    Two out of three – Bing isn’t doing so bad for itself at all. With over 500,000 timelines already created, you might need to redefine what it means to be famous to find somebody who has yet to have a timeline.

    Image via Bing

  • Facebook Pages Not Letting Businesses Post Links

    It seems to be a rough day in the social media world. A lot of Twitter users have been experiencing problems on and off, and some businesses with Facebook pages have been unable to post links throughout the day.

    We noticed this ourselves at first, but then when searching the Twitterverse, saw others complaining about it as well.

    Here are a few of those complaints. Let us know if you’ve been experiencing problems yourself.

    Tyson Gamblin
    @TysonGamblin     I have a rough time posting on my facebook brand page today, anyone hear if there is something up with that? #facebook
    3 minutes ago via web · powered by @socialditto
     Reply  · Retweet  · Favorite

    Lon Seidman
    @lonseidman     Anybody else having trouble posting items to their Facebook business page? I’ve been unable to post since last night.
    19 minutes ago via Twitter for Mac · powered by @socialditto
     Reply  · Retweet  · Favorite

    Lisa Desatnik
    @goodthingslisa     Still having problems posting links to my #Facebook page.
    1 hour ago via TweetDeck · powered by @socialditto
     Reply  · Retweet  · Favorite

    pressconnects
    @pressconnects     Pressconnects is having difficulty posting links on its Facebook page today. Please be patient as we work through this issue.
    1 hour ago via TweetDeck · powered by @socialditto
     Reply  · Retweet  · Favorite

    Ryan Ghods
    @ralxz     Anyone else having trouble posting to a Facebook page right now?
    3 hours ago via Twitter for Mac · powered by @socialditto
     Reply  · Retweet  · Favorite

    Milton H Peebles III
    @teddydragonbear     for some reason my tweets are not posting on my FaceBook page like they are supposed to
    3 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto
     Reply  · Retweet  · Favorite

    I wonder how much web traffic this is costing everybody. Facebook can be a tremendous source of not only traffic for sites, but engagement with user around a site’s content. If Facebook doesn’t get this problem fixed soon, there will no doubt be plenty of irate businesses.

    Regular status updates do appear to be working, as do links from personal profiles.

    We’ve reached out to Facebook, and will update if we receive a comment.

  • Twitter Search and Timelines Are Having Issues

    UPDATE: As of 3:45 EST, things seem to be back to normal.

    ORIGINAL ARTICLE: You might have noticed that Twitter is acting a little strange lately, and Twitter has just acknowledged the problem on their official Twitter Status blog:

    Some users may be experiencing issue in viewing search results and home timelines . Our engineers are currently looking into this issue.

    Our office is having issues with both search and home timelines. Any search simply loads the Twitter background by no results. If you try to access any user’s timeline, their unique background will load but the timeline is nowhere to be found.

    Hopefully, things will get worked out sooner rather than later – we’ve all got Twittering to do.

    [Note: It doesn’t seem to be affecting actual tweeting functionality, and our tweet stream of all those we follow seems to be working fine]