5 Things We Love About the New Twitter

Posted on 24. Sep, 2010 by in Business, Entrepreneurship, Internet, Social Media

TwitterEarlier this month, Twitter announced some big news– a Better Twitter.  Not everyone has the new Twitter yet, and not all of the features have fully launched, but so far we like what we see.  The new, re-engineered Twitter includes some sweet new features, like a streamlined header bar with dashboard, keyboard shortcuts, a retweet overlay, and sleeker “What’s Happening” box.

This is the first major change since Twitter first launched, and with change comes talk.  Do a search using the #newtwitter phrase and you’ll see a ton of chatter, both good and bad.  At Blogtrepreneur, our overall impression is a good one, and we thought we’d share with you 5 things we love about the new Twitter.

New Twitter

Keyboard Shortcuts

When you hit your ? key, a handy Keyboard Shortcut overlay will be displayed.  The overlay details all of the Action and Navigation shortcuts you can excute on Twitter.com.  Some of the shortcuts include: ‘f’ to favorite, ‘n’ to create a new tweet, ‘m’ to send a direct message, and ‘/’ to search.

Miniprofiles

No longer do you have to visit a new page to see a user’s profile.  Simply click on the username and a slideout overlay will appear, providing detailed information such as their bio, location, and recent tweets.

Auto-complete usernames

Now, instead of having to remember and type in full Twitter usernames, you simply start with the @ sign and the first letters of the user’s name.  A dropdown menu will appear, allowing you to select the appropriate username.  This feature isn’t quite perfect, however – it only selects from the last 500 users you’ve followed.

Infinite Scroll

You no longer have to click “more” to view additional Tweets.  ‘Nuff said!

Tweet Preview / Related Content

This might just be the coolest new feature yet.  Click on a tweet and a slideout overlay appears to the right, showing the original tweet, any embedded media (cool all by itself!), usernames and bios for Twitter users mentioned in the tweet, and related content.

Check out Twitters promo video for some demos of what the new Twitter is all about:

So, our official take on the new Twitter is that it’s a definite improvement, even though it’s clearly a work in progress.  Do you have the new Twitter yet?  If so, what do you think?  What are your favorite features, and what do you think still needs improvement?  We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Tags: , , , ,

30 Responses to “5 Things We Love About the New Twitter”

  1. John Paul Aguiar

    24. Sep, 2010

    I luv it to,, BUT there are some small pain in the butt issues haha

    But overall it is very cool and more useful then before.

    Reply to this comment

  2. JohnAtBlogtrepreneur

    24. Sep, 2010

    @John: Agreed. It’s way better than before and will only continue to improve hopefully. Still some kinks to work out though.

    Reply to this comment

  3. Carlton

    24. Sep, 2010

    Finally, the guys at Twitter are getting right at last a more modern more up to date interface!

    Reply to this comment

  4. Carlton

    24. Sep, 2010

    I think the new twitter is really user friendly but I hope that I would get rid of their twitter overload page.

    Reply to this comment

  5. email search

    24. Sep, 2010

    To be fair, “new” does not necessarily mean better. “New” in this case is undoubtedly driven, so that they have a better platform for ad placement. And thus revenue generation. Twitter, facebook, etc. all only care about user experience to the extent they maximize revenue. If you hate it, but still use it, it’s all good as far as they’re concerned.

    Reply to this comment

  6. JohnAtBlogtrepreneur

    24. Sep, 2010

    @email: I think people forget these are companies – businesses – not public institutions. You use the term “maximize revenue” like that’s a bad thing. Pretty much everything I’ve read so far about the new platform agrees that it isn’t perfect (what is?) but that it does make for a much better user experience.

    Reply to this comment

  7. tires

    24. Sep, 2010

    this changes will only be good if they get rid of the over capacity whale :D

    Reply to this comment

  8. Blog Income for Women

    24. Sep, 2010

    Oh my this is so exciting. I’ve not yet seen the new Twitter on my end and I did check last night!

    Thanks for the tips and update.

    Krizia

    Reply to this comment

  9. car battery

    24. Sep, 2010

    I think is a pretty big and positive change in the right direction for Twitter. I was worried it’d be something useless and clunky when I heard about it at first but it’s quite the opposite thankfully.

    Reply to this comment

  10. tires

    25. Sep, 2010

    I don’t yet have this new twitter, but it did give me an option to try it out, so I did, right away I did notice the Infinite Scroll feature that you mention here. Indeed over all it’s a positive change, but I hope they also have improved their “fail whale” rates that always seem to pop up and annoy all of us using twitter :(

    Till then,

    Jean

    Reply to this comment

  11. Computer Tips Tricks

    25. Sep, 2010

    It’s becoming more easier to use, but it takes time to get familiar with it.

    Reply to this comment

  12. Custom Essay

    25. Sep, 2010

    Mini profile option saves time when we try to find more details about our friends.

    Reply to this comment

  13. Mauricio Malchevic

    26. Sep, 2010

    All this new features are great. They will improve the user experience and the overall interaction.

    Reply to this comment

  14. JohnAtBlogtrepreneur

    26. Sep, 2010

    Don’t feel bad, Jean. I don’t have it yet either, and I’ve got a Klout score of 64, and I know someone with a 14 Klout who has it. So I can’t tell how they decided who to roll it out to first, but we’ll all get it eventually! :)

    Reply to this comment

  15. Bryan @ Money With Articles

    27. Sep, 2010

    Wow – They must’ve really just changed that like a couple of hours ago, because I was logged on today (late morning CST) and I didn’t see the changes. Looks like I’ll be spending some time getting used to this new setup!

    Reply to this comment

  16. bikram

    27. Sep, 2010

    this change it will make the whale go away?, I wonder

    Reply to this comment

  17. JohnAtBlogtrepreneur

    28. Sep, 2010

    A lot of people saying, “Great, but what about the Fail Whale?” I agree. This new look and functionality is really cool, but making the site do what it’s supposed to do when you need it is even better. Hope Twitter is listening…

    Reply to this comment

  18. Carlton

    01. Oct, 2010

    I think the new twitter is bit slow? I like the twitter bar at the top!

    Reply to this comment

  19. Aluminum Cases

    01. Oct, 2010

    The old Twitter interface was quite weak. So it is easy to make a major improvement upon it. I like the new changes but I haven’t really used it much. I guess twitter wanted to reign in some of their visitors that had started using external twitter clients.

    Reply to this comment

  20. tires

    01. Oct, 2010

    @John, Well I’ve got it now as my default when I log in :D took me some getting used to it at first as some of my normal routines are now no longer the same hehehe.

    Till then,

    Jean

    Reply to this comment

  21. email search

    03. Oct, 2010

    @John,

    Yeah, as long as they offer a better user experience the revenue maximization might not hurt the users, but the problem is that sometimes companies don’t care much about the user side…

    Reply to this comment

  22. JohnAtBlogtrepreneur

    04. Oct, 2010

    @email: I know what you mean, and am not trying to argue, but if a company doesn’t care about the user side, they won’t be around long, and these guys most definitely know that, so I see FB and Twitter continually trying to improve the user experience. Of course some people just hate change, so no matter what they do they’ll get some complaints. (Not saying that’s what you’re doing.) I’ve consulted at companies where they’ve implemented a vastly better computer system, but the resistance to change was so great that some people actually threatened to quit if they didn’t go back to the old, familiar system. Today, when technology is progressing so rapidly, this mentality is not only comical but dangerous to their livelihood.

    Reply to this comment

  23. Power generator

    09. Oct, 2010

    All this new functions are good. They will enhance the user practical experience along with the total interaction.

    Reply to this comment

  24. Pet Camera

    11. Oct, 2010

    Well, as the saying goes, “You can’t please everyone all the time.” However, as far as directions go, the new Twitter is finally making navigation more user-friendly. I don’t care if their motivation is increasing revenue so long as I can streamline my online time with them. Love the profile preview and Auto-Complete features. This has been a long time coming.

    Reply to this comment

  25. Catalin

    13. Oct, 2010

    It’s good to see they’re focusing on the user-experience, besides the new implementations, I’m more enjoying the new UI design though

    Reply to this comment

  26. Daniel Maddocks

    14. Oct, 2010

    It’s a much nicer design, I think it may encourage me to tweet more :)

    Reply to this comment

  27. Catalin

    14. Oct, 2010

    @Daniel Maddocks
    Exactly, at some point I got comfortable with the idea that they’ll keep the simplistic design, after all, it was doing its job and it still suited me well. When I saw the new UI design implementation, loved it :)

    Reply to this comment

  28. Daniel Maddocks

    15. Oct, 2010

    @Catalin
    Just downloaded the new Twitter for Blackberry, they’ve done a good job all round I think.

    Reply to this comment

  29. Printable Coupons

    20. Oct, 2010

    They upgrade often but they can’t get rid of the Over Capacity Whale. Only on Twitter. :p

    Reply to this comment

  30. Catalin

    20. Oct, 2010

    @Daniel
    Yes, they’ve improved “globally” when launched the new wave of updates :)

    @Printable Coupons
    It’s something we can live with :P

    Reply to this comment

Leave a Reply