Comments on: 5 Twitter improvements we're still waiting for

Twitter is a great service, but that doesn't mean it's not lacking in some areas. We take a look at all those places Twitter leaves much to be desired.

[mycbrad]

What makes Twitter unique IS the SMS system. I can get a friend to join having NEVER been to twitter.com. The character limit is a good thing.

[fugawe]

Don, I mostly agree, but the 140 char limit it fine. If they gave you 200 chars then you'd ask for 250 later, then 300, and so on.

Also, as long as twitter allows clients to do some of the things you want, they may just focus on growing the infrastructure. Tweetdeck, for example, lets you make groups and do filtering.

[PaulTwo]

I agree. 140 char is fine

[mementh]

agrred, the only way 140+ is possable is if twitter broke it up to more then one text message.
plus you can send more then 140 but it cuts off and only lets web users see

[walelia]

I disagree with your character limit suggestion. I like that I can get my tweets by sms. It's one of the things that makes the service worthy. Also, I can control which folks I want to read by sms. If I want to read everyone I follow, I check out the website or the apps. But I know that the people I want to really read are getting to me and in a timely manner. The apps out there don't necessarily deliver as quickly as sms.

I think it would be an absolute disservice to disregard the sms aspect of Twitter. As one of the folks before me said, Twitter is unique for the sms system...

[jps0611]

I strongly second you on Groups and Tweet Filter. Tweet Filter isn't a big deal from me since I neither have many followers nor follow many people, but it would still be useful helping to control what might be a tweet-overload. Profile stats and Unfollow notices would be useful, but I don't see them as essentials.

I think you're overlooking the beauty of the 140 character limit, though. Squeezing in what you want to say within the limit is part of the fun of Twitter. It encourages terseness and making sure you get the point across as quickly as possible. As fugawe notes, upping the limit from the (arbitrary) 140 limit to a 200 character limit would only result in an inevitable escalation of the limit. We already have good forums for spreading longer messages (blogs, websites, newspaper articles, magazines, etc). A focus on short and to the point messages is a novelty, and it's what really makes Twitter shine as a service, rather than being just another blogging platform, imho.

Great post!

[TacoBell00]

I agree it should be built-in functionality, but in the meantime, check out Qwitter (http://useqwitter.com/) for unfollow notices.

[scheza]

If Twitter didn't have the SMS system, I think it would make Twitter no different than any other blog. I think people just need to learn how to be more succinct or just make a normal blog if they need the larger character limits that can be made online with ease.

[mrorie]

I don't want people knowing that I've unfollowed them. Let's face it, sometimes you follow someone just out of politeness or because they specifically ask you to, and then they wind up posting boring crap. Easier to just unfollow them and hope they don't notice (and if they're as omphaloskeptic as many Twitter users are, they probably won't). No need to hurt anyone's feelings.

Same goes for Facebook. There's no need to change something that works just so more drama can be created.

[pjhenry1216]

Couldn't you just say "navel-gazer"? I see little reason to use a word that I'm fairly certain that you're fairly certain most people won't know. It seems a little bit like showing-off to me. Maybe you're as omphaloskeptical as the Twitter users...

[mrorie]

If you know a word, why not use it? If someone doesn't know it, they can look it up. Or, I guess, whine about not knowing it on a forum thread. As Nabokov once said: "I do not care if a word is 'archaic' or 'dialect' or 'slang'; I am an eclectic democrat in this matter, and whatever suits me, goes."

[tehrani625]

if you want a high character limit go to Tumblr.

I believe Dan is missing the point here. The 140 character limit is a fundamental pillar that helps define Twitter. If what you are trying to say cannot fit in that limit, then Twitter is not the forum for that comment. Email, blog or use another vehicle to get the word out.

Mobility is also a core principle of Twitter and if tweets can no longer be delivered via SMS, mobile users will be left out. Dan argues that third party applications could allow people to bypass the SMS limit by using the Web. Though true, SMS is supported by the vast majority of handsets on the market today and reaches the largest number of potential users. The only cost to those users are the charges by their carrier for sending or receiving text messages. Third party apps for traditional handsets could have an upfront cost at the time of purchase, and they would all have long-term charges for the data plan to support that application.

The 140 character limit is part of the essence of Twitter; it defines the style, cost and use of the service. Increasing that limit is not the right path for Twitter.

I wrote more - here: http://kempmullaney.com/blog/?p=55

[wyattpeak]

The 140 character limit has been argued above, so I'll leave that alone. The profile views I can understand your interest in, but it seems a relatively minor qualm, and probably isn't high on the dev team's list of priorities.

As for the rest of your suggestions, there are third party apps to handle all of them. I think, even more than the ability to SMS tweets, what defines Twitter is the limitless extensibility. Add this functionality to the main site, and it quickly becomes a very complicated service, because others would have different lists of five updates they wanted. It's better to provide an incredibly simple interface, and allow people to pick tools which allow them to better utilize the service.

I wrote a blog post yesterday on just this matter, if anyone's interested:
http://wyattpeak.com/2009/01/19/why-simplicity-is-king/

[n3td3v]

Twitter needs no improvements its perfect as it is.

[kate__k]

You can solve a number of these problems:
Qwitter - sends you an email when someone stops following you. (see @tacobell00)
Tweetburner - like TinyURL, but along with shortening links, it tracks the clicks on them.

I would add to your list - display on someone's page whether or not *they follow you*.

http://onceateacher.wordpress.com

[Cyberpundit]

Snipr or Snipurl already do that. It's already available in most self-respecting Twitter clients. Why bother with a one-feature Tinyurl.

[D3vildog699]

I'm Starting to get the feeling Don is obsessed with twitter...

[Eballs]

Twitter is stupid

[loose_screw]

Agree.

[mjconver]

Agreed, twitter is way stupid, glad to hear somebody else is bored with all this. People who are obsessed with tweets are like high schoolers who are worried where the cool kids sit at lunch and who they're talking about. Time to grow up, kids!

[nosugrefneb]

HTML, I say!

?@nosugrefneb

[UITD]

How about deleting the system entirely. What a waste of time. Like I want to know what you're all doing ever effin moment of the day and night. Think again.

[dkc1026]

I could not agree with you more. Sometimes it seems as if people who use Twitter think they are so important that they feel as if everyone needs to know what they are doing at all moments of the day. I could care less that your muffin was dry or is you chipped a nail. It is even worse when they use Twitter to automatically update their Facebook status...your news feed gets hijacked by their constant Twittering. I had to turn off Facebook mobile updates on some of my best friends because they were causing my phone to blow-up with text messages about the temperature of their latte, only to be notified 2 minutes later that the barista gave them a dirty look when they returned it. Micro blogging is great, but with everything else...in moderation. If something is so important, do it the "old fashioned" way and e-mail your news.

[WeCanDoBIZ]

You miss the point. Twitter is opt-in marketing and also a great way to get made aware of stuff on the web you might otherwise not have found. If you are just getting told someone is eating a muffin then you're following the right people.

To be fair to you, Twitter could be much easier for people to "get" (I think Twitter acknowledges that to). Currently, you need to know where to go away from the main site to find the websites and applications that make Twitter much more valuable. For that reason, my only request would be that the service be given an "app store" that makes the stuff that adds so much value much easier to find and use.

Ian Hendry
CEO, WeCanDo.BIZ
http://www.wecando.biz

[hmdz105]

The simplicity is the best thing.

[Alexoid3000]

I'm surprised 'conversations' or 'threads' didn't make it on the list. I can actually live without any of the other items but really find the fact that I can't follow a specific thread annoying, every message should have a link to @replies and re-tweets.

[linkerjpatrick]

I also disagree with changing the limit on the # of characters. If I want to post something that needs more characters I will write a blog post. Often I will have people ask those thought provoking questions that just want fit in the a Tweet well that is great stimulus for a blog post and now some blogs are having the ablity to plug in (pun intended) to Twitter as another means of commenting and I love that.

I do however definitely agree that grouping and or tagging of people is needed. I like you you can do this in Tweetdeck but you still have to know about the person to group them. My favorite means of grouping are by location (I love following local people I already know or would love to meeting at an in-person networking meeting. Another means of grouping would be for interest areas. I would love it if I could add tags for things I enjoy like photography, movies, web development, geocaching, etc.

As curious of a person as I am I tried out a service that notified me when someone stopped following me and it made me feel sour for the rest of the day wondering what the heck I did to make them stop? This was someone I knew and was honored they were following me as well.