A lot has been happening in the Twitter world these past months, forcing the network to change. These changes represent somewhat a new vision of an improved Twitter, perhaps.
So, the next good thing? Improved search and group chat.
While the Twitter community grows, more and more users are having a hard time getting quality news and information, ending up using the network less or even giving it up. For numerous reasons Twitter comes in very handy to get the latest updates or news on the things you are interested in, however when filtering the news becomes harder, Twitter needs to react, which they did.
After launching BotMaker, to resolve the problem with spam, Twister’s next on the list of improvement methods is solely directed to user experience.
One of their top priorities for 2015 is improving search capabilities, in order to better organize the content because displaying tweets by people the users don’t follow but are favoured by others which causes a big noise (dissatisfaction, to say the least). Twitter’s reverse chronological timeline does not offer the best experience for users as well which they are trying to change. After direct messaging, the company is also considering offering group chats, as reported in the Wall Street Journal.
The next good thing for Twitter and advertisers? Twitter knows users’ gender.
After opening its analytics platform for every user, allowing us to see how many people viewed our tweets, the followers section attracts much attention, because, apart from location and interests, it appears Twitter knows the users’ gender. By analysing word choice, proximity and other factors, it makes a guess, and it appears that this approach is 90 percent accurate. One study from 2010 analysed the difference in Twitter’s language usage by gender, age, regional origin and political orientation, and found out that “people laugh differently on Twitter as well. While women LOL, men tend to LMFAO.”
Does it matter? For marketers and advertisers it surely does, and knowing one’s gender points to obvious benefits for these parties. The more they know about the users, the better they can target their ads, especially now that they expanded their advertising offerings to countries in Eastern and Central Europe. It’s good for Twitter and advertisers, but does it benefit users? After all, it is a free social network.
Did you find security vulnerabilities? Good, $140 for you.
A bug bounty program is introduced to encourage researchers to find various flaws and vulnerabilities in the platform. The program is called HackerOne created for independent researchers in order “to recognize their efforts and the important role they play in keeping Twitter safe for everyone“. After one detects a security flaw, simply report it to Twitter and the service will then close the bug before anyone can take advantage of it. The minimum reward is $140, and while there is no maximum reward, it all depends on the severity of the reported bug. So far, 47 hackers are already part of the hall of fame (and paid, of course), and 48 bugs were reported and closed.
Twitter killed Twitpic, so developers stay alert.
The photo and video sharing service Twitpic is closing down September 25th, and this is not the first time Twitter is taking such measures towards third-party developers.
„A few weeks ago Twitter contacted our legal demanding that we abandon our trademark application or risk losing access to their API. This came as a shock to us since Twitpic has been around since early 2008, and our trademark application has been in the USPTO since 2009“ , explained Everett.
If you were using it, you will be able to export your photos and videos.
The all „new“ Twitter means less spam, improved search, better-targeted ads and $140 for hackers.How are they going to address cyberbullying and abuse on their network? Well, yes, they have a help centre, and not a very good one apparently.
