JENerally Informed: Man-day Post:The Tweets, They Are A-Changin'

Man-day Post:The Tweets, They Are A-Changin'

It's time for this week's edition of Man- day from Jensguy.

Jennifer has allowed me a second week in a row of tech blogging. If you find the content useful, please let us know in the comments section. If you would rather me to go back to baseball blogging, let us know about that as well. :)

If you haven't already heard, Twitter is revamping its user interface. Going from:

Much of the buzz around the internet has been about the resemblance to Facebook, and I suppose that there is some truth to that. The title picture is much larger with the profile picture inset on the side instead of square middle of the title picture, which was just plain annoying. Also the text used to describe yourself isn't placed over the picture, which is just implementing common sense as much as it is imitating Facebook. The previous functionality really diminished design options.

Additionally, it appears that Twitter is really going to focus on emphasizing photos which takes more of a nod from Instagram and Twitter than from Facebook. The rocket rise of Instagram is really turning heads. Notice that despite the main Twitter page now sporting three columns, the pictures in the Twitter stream are now more prominently displayed. And when you go to the "image only" view you get:

rather than this:

The old design was cute, but not nearly as effective in sharing content. I do hope Twitter comes up with a way to alter the thumbnail in the new design, however, as it seems to be cutting off people's heads on Zac's new page.

Quite frankly, this update by Twitter is long overdue, and removes some of the "geek" that made it harder to adopt for some users. And to those that want to complain that it looks too much like Facebook, I would point out the lack of garish ads, which has become the primary new "feature" set for the last few redesigns of Facebook. As I wrote about earlier, Facebook's days are numbered.

Comments (18)

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Erlene 56p · 582 weeks ago

Is this new design only for select few yet? How does one update their profile page?

1 reply · active 582 weeks ago

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Jensguy · 582 weeks ago

Yes, for right now they are only testing it on a select few and have already changed some of the features based on feedback. If you want to see it live, you can visit the Twitter Pages of Zak Efron, Channing Tatum, Michelle Obama, or John Legend (I wanted to use his page, but it is full of pictures of his swimsuit model wife which probably aren't safe for people browsing from work.) I think they are close to rollout and it should be available to everyone soon.

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becka · 582 weeks ago

I think I might become a twitter addict again when this happens. I like the new designs. The whole text over image was always just so annoying to my eyes. :) Tech talk away.

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Jensguy · 582 weeks ago

Yep, it just amazes me that they went with those bad design choices for so long. I think they are seeing an opportunity with the decline of Facebook to pick up a lot of disillusioned users looking for a new social media platform.

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comedyplus 47p · 582 weeks ago

I rarely visit my Twitter account. I'm on Facebook off and on during the day, but really don't care for that either. I hate the ads and I hate the games. The pokes and invites drive me crazy too. I've blocked every game that shows up in my game feed. The list is way long.

Have a terrific day. ☺

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Jensguy · 582 weeks ago

Have you looked at reddit? Of all of the people that comment of Jen's posts, you are the only one that I would immediately recommend to reddit at this point. It's tough over there, but I think you could survive and thrive.

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Meredith S · 582 weeks ago

Thanks for sharing! Just when I had finally figured twitter out too... lol

1 reply · active 582 weeks ago

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Jensguy · 582 weeks ago

I don't think that there is anything that will make Twitter HARDER to use, but it is technology and sometimes designers don't think things all the way through. . .

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Dizmommy 66p · 582 weeks ago

These changes are going to make twitter less wordy and more picturey and thank God! Like you said, it is overdue.

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Jensguy · 582 weeks ago

I think a lot of people held back from Twitter because it looked so alien to them. This will definitely help increase active users.

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Susan@ofeverymoment · 582 weeks ago

The tech blogging is helpful! Thank you!

1 reply · active 581 weeks ago

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Jensguy · 581 weeks ago

And thank you for the vote of confidence!

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storiesofourboys 31p · 582 weeks ago

Yes, I definitely prefer tech posts. I am tech challenged. I need all the help I can get!

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Jensguy · 581 weeks ago

I do tech for a living and the main requirement is patience. If you have enough patience you can become a tech expert. You have children, therefore I suspect that you have an above average supply of patience. I would submit that with a little practice you could also be a tech expert.

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Roaen 37p · 581 weeks ago

not sure how I feel about the new layout changes. it's sad that it's nothing revolutionary or groundbreaking tho, but i guess that's all companies do these days - copy off each other.

3 replies · active 581 weeks ago

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queenmomjen 75p · 581 weeks ago

Roaen,

Did you upgrade yet? Upgrades began yesterday.

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Roaen 37p · 581 weeks ago

not yet. :-) Never! haha. just kidding. it's inevitable, right?

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queenmomjen 75p · 581 weeks ago

I think so :) I did it yesterday and visually it is a lot easier for me to focus on. All the hashtags and links kind of blurred it all together. I know my husband here shakes his head and says I am a rookie techie.. Yeah, yeah, but it is easier to follow what's going on, at least for me.