Thing 10: Twitter Part 2

I have been reading the blogs of the other Sot 23 Things participants and found myself nodding in agreement with the excellent summaries of their Twitter experience from Azadeh, Pam and Nick.

However, and it surprises me to say this...

#like

Twitter is growing on me. I still don't like the linear nature of the screen and I will be doing some unfollowing (Daily Echo - 19 tweets in under 3 hours at one point #toomuchinformation) but I've had a couple of interesting conversations and gleaned some useful information.

I have mostly been using Twitter on the computer rather than a mobile device and I'd like the screen to be more like NetVibes instead of one long scroll. I know you can create lists on Twitter to help categorise information but I would then like to display all my lists on one page so I could see the most recent 5 tweets for each then click on one list to view the whole thing. I don't think you can do that but I will create a couple of lists and investigate how they work.

I don't think I want to use Twitter to communicate with people I don't know. I like having conversations with those I do know but I've gained several random followers and I don't like it. Too much pressure to write witty and insightful messages.

I like being able to search for topics rather than for people to follow. I searched #openaccess and within the 20 most recent tweets were links to 2 very relevant and up to date articles so I retweeted them just because I can.

I used Twitter on my phone for the first time yesterday, again just because I can. I love mobile technology in general and there is the slight worry that I will start posting inane drivel on a regular basis #youhavebeenwarned.

Things like this mean I'm not taking Twitter's suggestions of who to follow very seriously:

I was wondering why people still use URL shortening services to post links on Twitter even though Twitter now counts any length of URL you type in as 20 characters even if it is much longer. For some people it's probably an old habit, for some it's the novelty (#me), but after Googling it I discovered that services like bit.ly offer analytics so you can see how many people have clicked on each of their short URLs. I can see how that would be useful but for now I'll stick with the inbuilt Twitter service; I do always wonder when I click on a bit.ly or TinyURL link where it's going to take me and if I should trust it.