The XcapedCat is delighted to host today here, the one of a kind blogger – the beautiful Nicky Hari. Nicky is an 18 years old passionate blogger from India. Currently a student, she is a perpetual learner, an avid tweeter and a music lover. She has also written guest articles for Tech18.com, HarshAjmera.com, ArKarthick.com and on 2morrowknight’s awesome blog. Her work is listed among the “top 10 articles about twitter” on The Top10 blog, and she is featured in the top 64 Indian bloggers on Tech18.com.
N00b on twitter? You want to know how to be a perfect tweep? You don’t really understand what twitter is all about, you’ll just need to hit her blog and Follow her on twitter.
Nicky – The Floor is yours. Miaaaaouw,
Remember the time when you saw the “Psst the new twitter is here” at the top of your page on Twitter? What was your first reaction? Excitement? And then you hit the button to preview it, were you still excited with the new twitter?
There have been a lot of mixed reactions regarding the new twitter available on twitter.com. Some users being loyal third party app(s) tweeters, it won’t affect them much, but if you tweet from twitter.com, you’ll see that some major changes have been made.
So, how exactly IS the new twitter?
The Good:
- It’s sleek: Using new twitter almost gives you the feeling of using an app. The whole screen is divided into two big columns which makes it more organized.
- History of conversation in DMs: There is no ‘inbox’ and ‘sent’ as such. You see the whole thread of the conversations which makes it easier to follow DM conversations.
- Photos, videos are embedded: If you click on a tweet containing a photo , it enlarges in the right column it, without leaving Twitter. I find this as a very welcome change instead of opening a new tab for it, and like this we can view the pics on the same page. Similarly , videos play right on Twitter without leaving the page.
- Your own name in tweets. Whenever I wanted to tweet someone by name, I had to visit his/her profile and tweet him/her. The new twitter makes this process faster by showing your name just beside your handle in your tweet. That saves time and makes things easier.
The Bad:
- Lacks simplicity: It just feels like they have complicated things too much. Even though the basics like Lists, Favorites, ReTweets, Who To Follow, Following and Followers remain the same, it just doesn’t feel right. Every time I need to check my lists, I have to look for the Lists option amidst so many other things on the page. This will need some getting used to.
- Suggestions. Twitter suggests tweeps, you should be following. While a majority of people may find this annoying for the reason that they will follow whoever they want anyway. While others find it useful to find tweeps having similar interests. What do you think? Is the ‘Who To Follow’ feature useful or not?
The Ugly:
Personally, I don’t think anything about the New Twitter is ugly. It’s just cluttered. In trying to make the page more ‘alive’, the new twitter ended up being what we call ‘Too many things all at once’. Some might absolutely hate the new twitter at first glance.
Here are some changes Twitter should consider:
- Conference DMs: As of now, only two tweeps can have a private conversation on twitter. It would be awesome if twitter introduces conference DM as well, which would help multiple tweeps engage better.
- Option to add and delete columns : A la tweetdeck or hootsuite, if twitter would considers an option of adding one column for list, another one for favorites etc which could definitely help to organize the new twitter better. Hence it would not look as crowded as it does now.
Now that the ‘old twitter won’t be around for much longer’, getting used to the new twitter is what we can do at the moment, but I really think twitter should not make it mandatory to everyone. New twitter does have negatives but it has many positives too.
What do you think? Do you like the new twitter? Why? Hate it? Why? Any more changes twitter should consider according to you? Feel free to leave a comment!
Article by The XcapedCat
I am the escaped cat of @Glitterglitzer and @BarryckR. I blog, I quote, I bling, I dance and I hug! I love fun, beauty, weird and incredible.
has written 145 awesome articles for us at XcapedCat
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{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Brilliant post, I think you missed out one more good.
1) Replies
You can also see what your followers are responding to. In the past I always ask my “what tweet are you replying to” as some of them reply 8 hours later LoL..
Anyway twitter had considered putting columns into the stream but they didn’t work out well. It was in their beta version of the new twitter before launching to the public. So they might not do that. Anyway you can do it with chrome, there is a extension for that but I am not sure if it works for the new twitter.
However I think conference would be a great idea though. Imagine the ability to cc to anyone the DM. Only problem that might occur is spammers taking advantage quickly tweet everyone.
I kinda like the new twitter, I used it ever since I got it. I didn’t go back ever since. So everyday I use my beloved cotweet and new twitter. I think its the best combination.
Thank you for your Intake Aaron. Conference would be a great Idea true, and Spammers would be more present, but still, when you tweet the right people, you don’t recieve the same amount of Spams. I don’t know if you got me on this point.
thanks to Nicky for this Great Post.
Great points, Aaron. Thanks for stopping by and adding your valuable comment!
I kinda like the new twitter too, still getting the hang of it though!
another great post Nicky!
agreed with points added by Aaron too, and in case no one notice, when we click @reply on tweet with RTs from others, all name added automatically to your reply so you wont have to copy paste all names
As is for Barry and Miri congratz on the new site!!! iLove it!! (^_^)b
yes the cat has excaped! meowwww! (=^;^=)~
Somebody called me?..
Thank you Milz! Yeah, that is one great point I missed out on, thanks for adding it here!
You rock!
First let me say….”Great Work once again Nicky”!! {{{HUGS}}}
I for one have resisted the Lure of “New Twitter” I checked it out and did not like it at all. I found it crowded; and less functional for me. Being as ollllld as dirt….means that I am used to things as they are and see NO need for change! Hahaha. And I agree that they should not force the use of the New Format on people! Live and Let Live; I say!
That being said….if I am forced to use the “New Twitter”; I would like to see the conference DM as well. BUT…I would also like to see the character limit on them increased. I think the 140 is a Bloody Nuisance! Just saying….
Congrats once again Mirijam and Barryck on your Wonderful Collaboration!! Xcaped Cat is Tres Excellent! ,,,_____=^._.^=¸.•*´¯)¸¸.·’
P.S. I borrowed the cat from @zbleumoon….I’m sure she won’t mind! Tee-Hee
Ellie! Thank you so much!
((hugs))
But on the other hand, don’t you think 140 is the very essence of what twitter is all about? 
I agree with what you say, new twitter shouldn’t be made compulsory. So you want them to increase the character limit? That would be great for people who talk too much and can’t condense to 140 (like you and me, haha!)
Thank you so much for your comment, lovely!
Just wanna thank Barryck and Miri for letting me write for ya’ll. You guys rock, and all the very best for your awesome new website! Woot woot!
I prefer to navigate using shortcut. I have few suggestion.
-when navigate livestream using ‘j’ and ‘k’, why do we need to ‘enter’ first before we can ‘r’. Wish we can skip ‘enter’ part to reply, retweet & fav.
-where is the shortcut to open link? I suggest ‘v’ (just like in Google Reader).
-When we open preview panel, and navigate to another layer (example we open sombady profile), it will also open at the preview panel. Then no back button/link to go back to previous preview panel. Using browser back button will go to main stream.
Other thing. Please bring old RT there, it make Twitter clutter but it is important sometime.
i hate the new twitter its too confusing, there’s too much going on and the old one’s just better.
I agree, that was exactly my first reaction to it.
Add my vote for “Old Twitter”. Would love to have the option of not switching. Any idea how much longer before we are all forceably switched over?
haha not sure when the new twitter will be made mandatory for everyone. I know, they should totally give us an option to choose! Thanks for your comment!
Thanks for a great post.
Missing the option to see who have pressed the RT button on my tweets.
I may have missed where that is…
Then i should be happy if there was an option for company’s, supports and artist to select in settings what they are so it will be showed up in their tweets. Some users use regular names but they really are company’s, and when you follow them you get sort of spammed with links to what they sell. If it showed up that they are corp i would know and could choose to follow them knowing what they are.
Regards
Jonas
Nice ideas there, Jonas. I know, those spammy links you get once you follow them can be really annoying. Thanks for reading and for your comment!