Twitter, the second most popular social site in the world, intends to go public on a near-approaching date. That means that if you plan to buy any shares, you'll have a negligible say in the direction the company takes in the future.
We'd like to take this chance to put in our 140 characters. Okay, more like 600 words, in this case.
Though an excellent resource for news, jokes and information, Twitter is imperfect. Below, we've listed eight areas the site could improve upon before and after its IPO.
Do you agree with our list? What would you change about Twitter? Make your case in the comments below.
Conversation lines, Twitter's late August update, have faced a hugely negative response from users and the press. Twitter likely added the feature as a navigation improvement for newcomers, but it feels like a fundamental shift in the network's purpose.
We'd like to see Twitter put a lid on this experiment and return to the unobtrusive "View Conversation" button.
While users can schedule tweets through third party services like Tweetdeck and Hootsuite, we don't see why Twitter doesn't allow for it on-site.
Twitter no longer displays the platforms from which users posted their tweets. This feature was useful as a platform discovery tool — seeing what tools popular accounts used to manage their social presences. We'd like to see it again.
Drafts: because sometimes the world just isn't ready for your hilarious tweet — yet. The ability to save drafts and access them later is one of the best features of Twitter's mobile app. For some reason, though, drafts are inaccessible on the desktop version. We'd like to see an on-site desktop drafts feature in the future.
Remember when Instagrams automatically displayed when you expanded a tweet? We miss that.
While the cut-off purportedly had nothing to do with Facebook's purchase of Instagram, Twitter was the only site on which photo displaying was disabled. We'd like the companies to make up, reinstate this feature and beautify our feeds as soon as possible.
Twitter's search function has improved exponentially since the company acquired Summize in 2008. However, there is still room for more innovation. One possible path? Allow users to perform better location-based searches. If you're looking for local information, location-based searches would eliminate the need for lengthy, bizarre "event hashtags."
Editor's note: While Twitter's advanced search feature allows for a basic location-based searches within 15 miles of a given location, it's not all that easy to use. We'd like to see more search customization, allowing users to narrow or expand the range of their search as they see fit.
Twitter search results, by default, filter by "top" posts. We're fine with curation as an option, but the huge benefit of Twitter is seeing information chronologically in real time. We want Twitter to make the chronological "all" filter the default choice.
Twitter's "Trends" tool may boast a ton of locations, but it is not at all user-friendly. The only way to view trending topics from different locations is to manually select them individually, each time, from a pop-up screen. We'd like a place for trends in settings, which allows you to select multiple, custom locations at once. That way, we don't have to continuously switch back and forth.
We'd like to take this chance to put in our 140 characters. Okay, more like 600 words, in this case.
Though an excellent resource for news, jokes and information, Twitter is imperfect. Below, we've listed eight areas the site could improve upon before and after its IPO.
Do you agree with our list? What would you change about Twitter? Make your case in the comments below.
1. Get rid of conversation lines.
Conversation lines, Twitter's late August update, have faced a hugely negative response from users and the press. Twitter likely added the feature as a navigation improvement for newcomers, but it feels like a fundamental shift in the network's purpose.
We'd like to see Twitter put a lid on this experiment and return to the unobtrusive "View Conversation" button.
2. Scheduled tweets.
While users can schedule tweets through third party services like Tweetdeck and Hootsuite, we don't see why Twitter doesn't allow for it on-site.
3. Show platforms again.
Twitter no longer displays the platforms from which users posted their tweets. This feature was useful as a platform discovery tool — seeing what tools popular accounts used to manage their social presences. We'd like to see it again.
4. Access drafts on desktop.
Drafts: because sometimes the world just isn't ready for your hilarious tweet — yet. The ability to save drafts and access them later is one of the best features of Twitter's mobile app. For some reason, though, drafts are inaccessible on the desktop version. We'd like to see an on-site desktop drafts feature in the future.
5. Bring back Instagram-friendly Twitter cards.
Remember when Instagrams automatically displayed when you expanded a tweet? We miss that.
While the cut-off purportedly had nothing to do with Facebook's purchase of Instagram, Twitter was the only site on which photo displaying was disabled. We'd like the companies to make up, reinstate this feature and beautify our feeds as soon as possible.
6. Improve location-based searches.
Twitter's search function has improved exponentially since the company acquired Summize in 2008. However, there is still room for more innovation. One possible path? Allow users to perform better location-based searches. If you're looking for local information, location-based searches would eliminate the need for lengthy, bizarre "event hashtags."
Editor's note: While Twitter's advanced search feature allows for a basic location-based searches within 15 miles of a given location, it's not all that easy to use. We'd like to see more search customization, allowing users to narrow or expand the range of their search as they see fit.
7. Chronology over curation.
Twitter search results, by default, filter by "top" posts. We're fine with curation as an option, but the huge benefit of Twitter is seeing information chronologically in real time. We want Twitter to make the chronological "all" filter the default choice.
8. Update "Trends."
Twitter's "Trends" tool may boast a ton of locations, but it is not at all user-friendly. The only way to view trending topics from different locations is to manually select them individually, each time, from a pop-up screen. We'd like a place for trends in settings, which allows you to select multiple, custom locations at once. That way, we don't have to continuously switch back and forth.
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