I was trying to write a more refined and formal version of this, but since this idea’s been stuck in my head for so long, I’ll just let it out.
So it’s been a couple weeks since Twitter rolled out its newest feature, locations-based trending topics. I have set my location to Los Angeles, CA and tried to see if it added any real value to my Twitter stream. Just to be clear, the only reason why I adopted and avidly supported Twitter over Facebook is not because it was simple and easy to use. (For some people, Twitter is TOO simple for them to ‘get’ it. Or at least, that’s what I hear from those who don’t tweet. ) The only reason why I joined Twitter is because of its real-time information stream. It allows me to create, share, deliver, and consume what is happening RIGHT NOW with others.
As Evan Williams said at Web 2.0 Summit in November 2009, “What we have to do is deliver to people the best and freshest most relevant information possible. We think of Twitter as it’s not a social network but it’s an information network. It tells people what they care about as it is happening in the world.”
Hence, as he mentioned above, the most phenomenal and compelling feature that differentiated Twitter from other social networks is that it enables people to share real-time information of current events anywhere in the world. It allowed people to filter & customize the real-time information by letting them follow news, people, places, and companies that they genuinely care about. In addition, it publishes the most talked about or the ‘hottest’ topics on the bottom right corner of the homepage so that its users can see what is going on at the moment. It is the core strength of Twitter that contributed so much to its mainstream adoption.
However, is Twitter really living up to its mission statement defined by Evan Williams? At least in its current form, I doubt it. With the addition of location-based trending topics, it just seems like Twitter is jumping on the location-based social networking bandwagon just like everyone else in Silicon Valley (Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp, Geodelic, etc. you name it). And the biggest problem with the introduction of location-based trending topics is that it adds absolutely no value to neither Twitter as an information network nor its user experience.
I mean, how many times have you seen useless, pointless, and irrelevant trending topics such as #goodnight, #omgthatssotrue, #thisdateisover (these are displayed on Twitter as I write this post) on Twitter trending topics? Twitter’s core strength is in its real-time delivery of relevant and accurate information to its users. Twitter was faster at delivering Tiger Woods’ being involved in a car accident than CNN was.
But seriously, for FAWK’s sake, do we really need to know what the HELL you’re #nowplaying?? Just last week, there was a false rumor being spread on Twitter regarding Johnny Depp’s death and ‘RIP Johnny Depp’ was a trending topic for almost the entire day. By indiscriminately displaying the most talked about or most hashtagged words, Twitter is downgrading its quality as the world’s biggest real-time information repository.
Just imagine what Twitter can do with relevant and current real-time information combined with location-specific trending topics. For example, by filtering out the unnecessary and useless things that people say, Twitter can display location-specific advertisements about the ‘hottest’ and most talked about topics when they click on one of the trending topics. Think about how high click-through rate and conversion rate would be for those ads.
The result? “Seamless CPC advertisements with super high conversion rate for which Twitter can charge premium rate” that does not disturb Twitter’s current user experience or downgrade user’s authority like in-stream advertising does”.
This is just one thing that Twitter can do by simply filtering out the trending topics to deliver more relevant information for its users. And Twitter can create a revenue model without distorting the current user experience and make $$ at the same time. How great is that?
