Tag Archives: twitter trends

by Michelle Lentz

Last Thursday, Twitter rolled out the new Search features to everyone. While my professional account was in the beta, my personal account has now caught up and I have the features on both accounts. I first blogged about the integrated search in February. Those changes were refined and rolled out to beta users throughout March and April. Now, everyone is reaping the benefit of the beta period.

If you only use a desktop or mobile app, it’s worth taking a few minutes to log into Twitter.com and explore the new features. Search and trends are now built into the left column. Click any trend and the results appear on your Twitter.com page.

Search works the same way. Instead of heading out to search.twitter.com, you can search and view results from within your Twitter profile.  Searches can also be saved, allowing to you basically track your own trending topics.

Saved Searches, Trending Topics, and Following are now collapsible so that you control how much information you see.

Basically, all of those great features you love so much in Tweetdeck and Seesmic Desktop are now available directly from Twitter.com. What do you think of the new roll-out?

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Contact Michelle with news, stories, events, and more.
Email: michelle[at]writetech[dot]net
Twitter: @writetechnology, Friendfeed: michellel
Sites: Write Technology, Wine-Girl.net

by Michelle Lentz

About a month ago, I posted that Twitter had officially added search and trends. Well, they’ve added them again, in that they’ve moved them. According to the Twitter blog,

A few weeks ago we started testing Twitter Search in the web interface for a subset of folks. We had the search box way up near the top of the page and the results on a separate page. It turns out that’s not the awesome way to do it. The best way to experience Twitter Search is when it’s a natural part of your normal Twitter experience.

I’d have to agree. Now, the Search box is in my right-hand column with Trends underneath. In this screen capture, I did a search on social media. Instead of going to a new page, my search now shows up right on my Twitter.com home page. Much more seamless than last month’s design, where I was taken to a new page of search results. Settings and Profile have both been moved back to the top of the screen, which is good.

Interestingly, you can also save the search. That’s a great feature, especially if you reference the same search repeatedly. (Maybe you’re tracking your brand.) However, once you save a search, I can’t figure out how to access it again. It’s supposed to be permanently in my sidebar, but that didn’t seem to stick. Ah, the joys of beta.

This newest redesign is in beta for a subset of users. Once Twitter gets some feedback, it may or may not roll it out to everyone.

Any thoughts on the newest changes?

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Contact Michelle with news, stories, events, and more.
Email: michelle[at]writetech[dot]net
Twitter: @writetechnology, Friendfeed: michellel
Blogs: Write Technology, Wine-Girl.net

by Michelle Lentz

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about Twitter giving new search features to beta users. Well, the features are apparently out of beta, as Twitter is rolling out its latest user interface changes today. Refresh your Twitter.com page to see if they’ve arrived on your account yet.

At the top are two new menu options. Click Trends to see what’s trending right now on Twitter. Each of the trend keywords is a hyperlink to view the real-time discussion. As you can see,  #followfriday is currently the trending topic.

There’s also a new Search box. This is different from Find People, where you can search for friends. This Search box finally integrates search.twitter.com into the UI. Type in a topic and you can access the real-time conversation.

Have you been updated yet? What do you think of the changes?

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Contact Michelle with news, stories, events, and more.
Email: michelle[at]writetech[dot]net
Twitter: @writetechnology, Friendfeed: michellel
Blogs: Write Technology, Wine-Girl.net

by Michelle Lentz

Today Twitter announced (per the Twitter blog) that they are testing an improved search and trends feature. Twitter is rolling out access to a more integrated use of search from their Twitter page to selected users (beta testers, if you will).

Search.twitter.com has apparently been getting more and more popular (as I’m sure you knew, just as a user) in spite of its subdomain location. With the beta users, the Twitter Powers That Be hope to get a better sense of how people are using it. Once they get a better understanding, it’ll be all systems go for the rest of us. I say kudos to Twitter for taking this slow instead of jumping in headfirst.

The new trending function looks really nifty, with the ability to view a drop-down of the most popular topics on Twitter at any given moment in real time.

Adding both trends and easy access to search will make a huge difference for people using Twitter. With Search hidden, I bet a lot of casual users – and companies – are unaware of the power of brand and topic search in real time. It will soon be incredibly easy to follow what people are saying about your brand on Twitter, without ever leaving your Twitter page.

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Contact Michelle with news, stories, events, and more.
Email: michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, Twitter: @writetechnology, Friendfeed: michellel, Blogs: Write Technology, Wine-Girl.net

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