Twitter: The Best Of The Week (May 9-15, 2009)

Friday, May 15th, 2009 at 11:30 am

This is a weekly series that looks at the best Twitter-related stories, news and articles within the Twittersphere over the last seven days. You can read previous entries in our archives.

The Twitter @Replies Fiasco

Earlier this week, in a “small settings update“, Twitter removed the facility for users to tweak the options that determine how they see replies on the network. Previously there were three settings available to members – all @ replies, @ replies to the people I’m following, or no replies at all. Twitter adjusted this so that only the second option was available as an unchangeable default.

Well, that was the plan. Even though only 2-3 per cent of all users liked the ‘all replies’ feature, the wave of protest was so strong that the Twitter founders were forced to respond and address the issue. Well, in part, at least. Some good may come out of it yet, but in just 48 hours Twitter’s PR and approval rating took a major nosedive.

Related stories: Ajax Blog, Mashable, TechCrunch.

Celebrity Twitter Overkill

From the folks who bought you “Twouble With Twitters”, comes “Celebrity Twitter Overkill“, which like its predecessor is uncomfortably on the money.

Codename: Squirrel

This week, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey announced his latest venture, which is code-named Squirrel. What is it? Uh, some kind of iPhone payments system. Can’t wait.

Twitter Trends

Twitter Trends is an oldish feature that only recently has made its way to everybody’s home page on the network. Essentially, it tracks the ten most popular themes or ‘trends’ on the platform at any given time.

The problem is that it’s very easy to game this tracker, which can produce unfavourable results for users, although you have to wonder (and I did) if anybody pays all that much attention.

The Four Stages Of The Average Twitter User

Confusion, revelation, acceptance, addiction. Could it be so?

CEOs Who Use Twitter

Business Week compiled an excellent article about all the top chief executives who find “tweeting a personal and professional delight”. It’s a must-read.

The Best Of @Sheamus

I share a lot of great content on Twitter and recent I began to store the cream of that crop in my favourite’s folder. You can access it via this link. I’m a prolific tweeter, and this might be useful if you can’t keep up!