Last month Twitter launched its new retweet feature in order to eliminate confusion and authenticate user quotes (as the copy & paste method was being exploited by spammers).
Although the new retweet feature solved the latter issue, it led to more confusion in the twittersphere as many users became upset at “seeing new faces” in their tweet stream.
The retweet feature is so unpopular that most iPhone Twitter apps have (thus far) delayed implementing it, save two–Tweetie and Twittelator Pro.
While Twitter went into a preemptive PR mode to justify the new retweet feature, they may want to check out how Tweetie and Twittelator handle retweets instead.
Instead of showing a random strangers face when a friend retweets something interesting to the world, both iPhone apps instead show your friend’s face alongside the retweeted person’s face.
This not only eliminates confusion, but helps kill off the old school method of retweeting which needs to die the cyber death (as I’m tired of spammers retweeting quotes “from me” online).
Why Twitter has not yet done this has always puzzled me, but hopefully they will considering implementing something like this soon (as in today).
Author: Darnell Clayton
Darnell Clayton is a geek who discovered blogging long before he heard of the word “blog” (he called them “web journals” then).
When he is not tweeting, friendfeeding, or blogging about space, he enjoys running, reading and describing himself in third person.
The Net Fool says
December 31, 2009 at 2:24 amYou know, I think you are actually right… that does look a lot better through Twittelator & Co.. Twitter seems to be “behind the times” on a lot of things that they implement, and the fact that the website still gets overloaded is almost laughable.
James says
December 31, 2009 at 3:03 amThere is also a similar feature on Tweetdeck now..
Listen to the people Twitter !
Neil says
December 31, 2009 at 3:11 amTwitter is a great tool and I suspect their sr. mgmt. is keep busy trying to read their crystal ball on how to monetize this monster w/out losing users in the process. From the dozen or so Twitter tools I’ve bought and used, they all have to deal with the Twitter API menacing routine. Twit Automator is on the fritz and I suspect won’t be back online until after the ball drops in Times Square and I for one, don’t like it a bit!
Last Result says
December 31, 2009 at 4:16 pmheheheh,… I think tweeter just do a research and wanna to see the user respons. Which one better?
[email protected] says
December 31, 2009 at 4:20 pmI am not using both tools, but may I know which one better to use? Somebody like me need a simple but power full.
redwall_hp says
December 31, 2009 at 8:34 pmTweetie is excellent, easily the best iPhone Twitter client, but I’m still annoyed that the Mac version hasn’t been updated to enable to the new retweets yet. I love the implementation on the iPhone, but I spend a lot more time on my Mac…
Brian Carnell says
January 1, 2010 at 2:27 amThe examples you cite are simply awful..not as bad as Twitter’s implementation, but that’s a backhanded compliment if I’ve ever given one.
What Twitter needs to do is abandon its attempt at redefining what an RT is. If I were Twitter I would keep this functionality but give it some other name and explanation as I would indeed find it useful, but not while they’re trying to muddy things up by calling it an RT.
qwert says
January 16, 2010 at 7:50 pmAnd I think that the tweeter, which was conceived as mikroblog, and should remain so. And the appearance of all possible options, only complicates the conditions for the use of this service.