In July 2009, Twitter debuted a new home page to appeal to the early market majority who were suddenly introduced to the popular microblog, but not quite sure what to make of it. Version 2.0 of the home page spotlighted popular themes and conversations through trending topics and real-time search to lure new users into the service through context rather than technology. Almost nine months later, Twitter continues its race towards mainstream ubiquity with the release of a new home page, version 3.0.
The new design features more dynamic content that not only showcases trends and real-time search results, but also features top tweets as well as friends, industry peers, celebrities, and relevant businesses. While the release of a new home page is usually not anywhere close to news, this release is Twitter’s attempt to demonstrate the value of a service that is introduced to potentially millions of new users daily as media, businesses, celebrities, et al, ask their audiences and communities to “follow them on Twitter.” Twitter.com is the the point of entry for all prospects and it is the trends, combined with the search results, combined with the overall experience that determines the fate of the relationship between Twitter and its visitors.The next step is for Twitter to improve the registration process to explain the true value of the service for those who really need it presented specifically across a variety of personal and professional use cases.
Contrary to popular belief, Twitter.com continues to serve as the primary service for following the stream and also tweeting with third party clients such as TweetDeck, Seesmic, HootSuite, and PeopleBrowsr appealing to more experienced and active users.
According to Twitter:
All of our recent changes embrace the notion that Twitter is not just for status updates anymore. It’s a network where information is exchanged and consumed at a rapid clip every second of the day. With so much being shared, we know that there’s something of value for everyone. People who internalize the value of Twitter understand the power of this simple medium. But it hasn’t been easy to make that value transparent or obvious for curious folks coming to Twitter for the first time.
The new and improved Twitter.com, in the very least, is an open invitation to explore conversations as they happen online…using context and contacts as lure to engagement.
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TweetDeck, Seesmic, HootSuite, and PeopleBrows – I want to know more about these but cannot find where the 'How to' and 'About' are on Twitter….if not too trivial a request someone please clue me in…Tnks!
I like it. It's clean with a collection of individual, business and interest images with roll-over. They also include a twitter for business 101 link – http://business.twitter.com/twitter101/.
Yes…I remember that was first published right after the new home page design last year. I'm working on another site they launched that's also very helpful.
Carikaplan, go to the websites of those services directly. I like HootSuite better than TweetDeck but haven't used the others. Their interfaces are fairly intuitive. HootSuite brings in LinkedIn and Facebook, too.
Brian, thanks for the article. Really, thanks for all of your blogs and tweets. I follow them daily.
Claire, thank you…and thank you for helping Cari. Cheers!
Believe it or not, I still use old school Twitter as opposed to third party (exception: Tweetie). Does that make me a dinosaur?
Hi David…when I need to take Twitter in stride, I too use Twitter.com and Tweetie. When I'm using it for business projects, I use TweetDeck and Peop
The website is still faster than the likes of HootSuite or Seesmic, so I still happen to use it when needing to be quick (or even open the mobile site version).
But unlike the homepage, they really don't do much updates to the timeline view layout don't they. After the list.
Unless I've misunderstood how the information is being pulled, what the new front page does is present US dominated information but to a user base that is increasingly not American.
What both Google and Facebook cracked at an early stage was that if you want international growth it's not a good idea to treat your users as if they're all American. Twitter has shown some signs of this too (e.g. introducing non-US trending information) but I wonder if this new front page -whilst good for Americans – is really a step back overall?
Unless I've misunderstood how the information is being pulled, what the new front page does is present US dominated information but to a user base that is increasingly not American.
What both Google and Facebook cracked at an early stage was that if you want international growth it's not a good idea to treat your users as if they're all American. Twitter has shown some signs of this too (e.g. introducing non-US trending information) but I wonder if this new front page -whilst good for Americans – is really a step back overall?
Twitter has not so far done a great job of appealing to the average person. It has been a tech elite thing.
I'm actually working on a post discussing this very subject.
I can't wait to hear what you might have to say.
Nice, but strange the 'advanced search' link is missing on their home page
(Like the one they have on http://search.twitter.com)
Yesterday I also found http://tweetlevel.edelman.com/
Now that would be nice for their home page too!
JP, have you tried klout.com ?