By now you’ve heard that Twitter has released a new feature called “Twitter Lists”. In case you haven’t check out TheNextWeb’s great intro and explanation article, “How Twitter Lists Work”.
This is a watershed move by Twitter and I find myself wondering how lists might change how we interact with twitter. I think I may have stumbled upon the question that could be the driving force behind the feature release.
Will Twitter Lists bring people back to the web interface?
Twitter has been a victim of its own success. As users become more involved in the
service the less useful the web interface becomes. Many hardcore twits survive only because great apps that allowed user defined groups. I dare say it was this feature alone that initially rocketed Tweetdeck into such broad adoption. The only problem with this solution is that the groups are tied to the app. There’s no ability to import/export groups. This is a real barrier to adoption of other apps once you’ve spent hours organizing groups within Tweetdeck. The answer is an official list model from Twitter, but notice there hasn’t been any tips about an API update.
Why does Twitter care whether you use the web interface?
My guess, money.
There has been a ton of speculation on Twitter’s monetization strategy and the discussion revolves around 3 ideas
- Twitter could purchase an app like Tweetdeck and charge a fee for usage.
- Ad support, 3rd party revenue model
- Freemium model where they would charge for premium accounts that would offer additional features or increased API calls
I don’t think any of these methods are out of the question but which is easiest to launch?
Freemium just doesn’t feel right for Twitter at the moment and might result in a user uprising. They could purchase an app but that takes lawyers, negotiations, and with an open API people would probably flock to free competitors.
The fact is Twitter has put a ton of development into the web interface the past few months. They’ve implemented suggested users for new members, RT functions, saved searches, etc…. If their overall goal is to bring people back to Twitter.com then Twitter Lists have to be an essential component of that plan.
Simply put Twitter.com just got a lot more useful. In a single stroke they create an official recommendation and discovery system while satisfying the need for breaking up people into more consumable containers.
I’m still exploring how this will change my personal usage but I can see already that creating and discovering lists are going to radically enhance how we find and share quality twits. Not to mention an easy way to keep up with different streams.
I’ll be the first to admit I could be totally wrong but its hard to argue that it seems like Twitter is wanting use to come home to roost.
Update: I’m still developing my lists but here’s a few lists I’ve created you might find useful
- SecurityTwits – http://twitter.com/tsudo/securitytwits
- LRTweetup – http://twitter.com/tsudo/lrtweetup
- Social Media folks – http://twitter.com/tsudo/socialmedians
- Some of my fav folks – http://twitter.com/tsudo/favorites
Have you created some lists? Share them in the comments or send a reply to @tsudo.
Related posts:
{ 6 comments }
This will be great it will cut down and spam and you can separate through people you follow.
Wow. You just said a lot of what I was thinking about ten times better
You are too kind Holden. I don't think I said anything better we are both just trying to look at the larger strategy in play.
That's a good point. It helps you evaluate your community and then improves your listening by 10x
You are too kind Holden. I don't think I said anything better we are both just trying to look at the larger strategy in play.
That's a good point. It helps you evaluate your community and then improves your listening by 10x
Comments on this entry are closed.