Twitter has just quietly rolled out a set of changes to its user interface on the “Following” and “Followers” sections of its website. These changes will clearly make it easier to manage who you follow as well as take actions, such as @replying someone or direct messaging them, directly from the page.
There are two new views for looking at these areas. “List” is a compact list of the followers, while “Expanded” offers more details including that user’s last tweet and their real name and location. On the Followers page, there is also a button that allows for one-click following of users who already follow you.
What’s interesting about these icons is that they appear to look exactly like icons that Apple uses for OS X — including some of the ones on the iPhone. Could this mean that we’re about to see a revamped mobile version of the Twitter site? Who knows, but it could sure use an overhaul.
Not seeing this in my account yet…slow rollout perhaps?
I have it on my account, and it’s nothing to be excited about. While some eye candy was added, the functionality has actually DETERIORATED:
No more bios shown on hovering over the Username link, block link takes an extra click now (under the cog icon), block behavior with that unneeded confirmation and seemingly random page forwarding NOT fixed, “Direct Message” links on the “Following” page now hidden under the cog icon, so you can no longer see at a glance who’s following you back.
FAIL
i agree, i don’t like these changes at all…..
I completely agree to you. Even I felt the same at-least in the first instance that is. Hopefully I need to discover much more to feel the features are at-least some useful as described.
Sonal
USourceIT:Riskfree IT outsourcing/sourcing partner for SMBs/SMEs
I can see lots of people having problems with this interface when web browsers start to get sluggish due to memory management issues.
You want links you can click before javascript kicks in, before a page is fully loaded, and positive actions should be totally separate from negative.
can’t see who’s following you back = massive truck of #FAIL
i’m just hear to count how many people are going to whine about you guys writing another Twitter article.
This just in. TechCrunch merged with Twitter to form… TwitterCrunch.
Twitter sucks!
Why have they not come out with an auto follow feature?
Or a follow all check box?
Or a un-follow all check box?
Why do they continue to let others add functionality to there platform yet they are incapable of doing it to there own platform.
I don’t think there engineers are very bright. Anybody can create a twitter site. It takes a somebody to add features that everyone else wants.
Twitter without the apps is nothing. What a bunch of idiots!
Dear “Twitter Sucks”,
Don’t be calling other people idiots when you don’t even know the difference between there/their/they’re.
So where’s your amazing site, “twitter sucks”?
Good work Twitter!
@cliffdailey
i dont see the changes yet on my end
same here, don’t know why… :\
Not seeing this yet.
Untill they allow me to do mass edits, I still have to go through and individually click each one. I think that any social network where yo are likely to have a lot of relationships should implement some sort of mass editing.
So much better as far as i’m concerned. Digging the new icon design, and I hope they continue to polish this stuff up. the hover actions of the transparent black bubbles are awesome too.
Biggest issue that’s always been there however is the lack of ability to sort by alphabetical/date followed. This KILLS me because it’s been requested almost since day one. I wonder if it’s an issue with the back end or they just haven’t gotten around to it.
Nice and clean – easy to manage and simplify follower lists…
Just noticed it myself, what a useful change!
This brings a lot more functionality. It’s good to see Twitter.com adding features to steal some thunder from third-party apps!
Saw the changes. It looks good. It makes it easier to keep track of Following and Followers.
I like it! http://blogs.zd.../weblife/?p=740
This is great! Awesome features.
Great addition but from a usability standpoint they should hide the icon unless the cursor is over that user.. much like Facebook allows you to hide a person from your mini-feed. Instead of being bombarded with “hide” dropdowns it only appears on the hover state
Yep, but they’re still not allowing you to remove unwanted and blocked followers. Some people may cherish having a lot of spam accounts bulking up their follower count, but the rest of us really want to be able to clear all the spam out of our follower lists. #twitterfail
I just realized this today. I’ve had three new “followers” in the past 24 hours who appear to be hookers advertising services. Their photos are all hardcore. I cannot remove them or report them. And now this will be the first thing my friends see if they view my followers: Whores with their asses in the air. That’s great.
MG, they rolled it out “quiety” because even they thought it was a largely irrelevant slapstick HTML change to their service. But no Twitter change, no matter how minute, can get past TC without comment.
Source?
Seems like they are trying to add some TweetDeck-ish functionality.
Are you sure you don’t mean MashDeck-ish?
hah
O
M
G
So, when can I dump the people that I blocked, some have avatars I despise.
Superb!
Well, these gave me an excuse to to check my *real* twitter page (instead of an iGoog Gadget) but, sadly, no changes. Maybe this is a ploy to boost page views for the quarter/end of month.
OTOH You know those Google Analytics UTM codes are working in those emails notifications you might be getting from Twitter.
I’ve got it on my account..
Breaking… Twitter farted
nice, this looks good
I know that checkboxes went out with Web 1.0, but don’t you think that a checkbox next to the follower and a checkall button would help?
then you can do multiple updates on your followers/friends…
Wonder when twitter would include a search option in Followers/Following list. Or even under DM’s or favourites for that matter. Would really like to have that.
I really like it, looks more organized, bravo!
I saw it on my Twitter page. Cool!
Looks better than the original. When do we get to use it?
Does anyone in the Twitterverse know how/whether we can set-up a data feed as a Twitter account so people can subscribe to it e.g. So current subscribers to a certain category of news on a dbase can receive it as a Twitter? (Is there a Twitter API library somewhere that might help here perhaps?)
Maybe one of Doug Bowman’s http://stopdesign.com/ first projects there?
Can we get a RT function on the web site please??? Sometime this year. Copy and paste, put a RT in front, come on. It is one of many reasons why I don’t use their web site.
Why can’t they just put a simple check box / “Select all” in front of those accounts. It takes 2 clicks per user to unfollow or block. Just my 2 cents.
Because twitter sucks!!!
Your lucky you don’t see the fail whale once a day.
Sell, sell, sell before Google changes it’s mind!
I agree completely. TWO CLICKS to do what you used to be able to accomplish in one click is NOT an improvement — regardless of how pretty the icons are.
Been using GreaseMonkey and @troynt script settings for ages. Twitter is an excellent API,.. for me too poop on. (Triumph Insult Comic Dog) It reminds me of every other app, game, out there. Nice bones. Lets make it better! Matter of fact it reminds me of my Camaro, nice stock but HELLO! kitty, ad some after market mods and shes a screamer. Hey its a new show idea “Pimp my Twitter!” PEACE!
Here is a great tip for you all: Use CatFood Follow … follow, un-follow from your desktop. Multi-Accounts supported. Now you owe me Love 4 long time cowboy! Here is the link if you need it http://bit.ly/HYxB9 otherwise catfood.net ZEN!
…I like it.
I like the new changes, but earlier you had to hover on user names in order to see their bio, and I was expecting them to update this and let the bios available with no need for hovering or so, but they decided to just remove the bio, which really pissed me off.
I also wanted them to give us the ability to sort people who followed us by the date they started following us, their names, etc. And also give us the ability to search for people within the list.
Twitter should be the lightest weight, server side app on the planet. From a database standpoint, it’s not really complex –using the cloud may add some wrinkles, but it’s what, three tables?
There are a few basic functions: post and read tweets, follow and un-follow, and direct message. Everything else is just fancier ways of doing those things. Why do we need a bunch of AJAX to do these simple features?
Case of too much fiddling without any reason…
Personally I like the new changes on Twitter. It makes it much more advanced looking. Welcome to 2009 Twitter!
Well, I agree that 3rd party apps are richer and easier to use. I also agree that this is a step backwards. And I totally agree with Grammar Queen: Hardly ANYONE in the first dozen or so comments scored 100 on spelling or grammar!
Nice piece of information, realy useful……
Thanks buddy!
Great addition but from a usability standpoint they should hide the icon unless the cursor is over that user..
Nice piece of information