August 20, 2014 at 22:28Twitter began embedding extraneous tweets in the feed
Many Twitter users today noticed that messages from unauthorized users that they are not subscribed to appeared in the tweet stream (not advertising, namely extraneous tweets). This is not a glitch at all, but a new Twitter feature. In fact, this is a fundamental change in the whole concept of service.
Previously, Twitter played a purely technical "dumb" role - it sent you messages from those users that you yourself have subscribed to. He simply collected them in one tape and updated it in chronological order. Now Twitter is positioning itself as a “smart” content provider.
A cardinal change of concept was quiet and without high-profile announcements. Twitter just updated the What is Twitter Timeline? by changing the definition of the tweets feed itself.
A new paragraph has been added to the Timeline definition (“All tweets from those you choose to follow on Twitter”) in the help section:
In other words, Twitter knows better what you're interested in,% username%!
In practice, the work of the “recommendation system” of Twitter often boils down to simply relaying those tweets that have been added to Favorites, but not retweeted by other users on your network.
In a way, Twitter is following the path of Facebook, which also algorithmically filters the user's feed and tries to guess which is more interesting from all the content published by friends. Only here we are not talking about filtering, but about adding additional content. This can increase user activity, the number of page impressions on the site - which means Twitter’s advertising revenue.
I wonder what other experiments await us in the future?
Previously, Twitter played a purely technical "dumb" role - it sent you messages from those users that you yourself have subscribed to. He simply collected them in one tape and updated it in chronological order. Now Twitter is positioning itself as a “smart” content provider.
A cardinal change of concept was quiet and without high-profile announcements. Twitter just updated the What is Twitter Timeline? by changing the definition of the tweets feed itself.
A new paragraph has been added to the Timeline definition (“All tweets from those you choose to follow on Twitter”) in the help section:
“Additionally, when we define a tweet, tracking account, or other content relevant or popular, we can add it to your feed. This means that sometimes you will see tweets from accounts that you don’t follow. We select each tweet based on several indicators, including its popularity and how users from your network react to it. Our goal is to make your feed more relevant and interesting. ”
In other words, Twitter knows better what you're interested in,% username%!
In practice, the work of the “recommendation system” of Twitter often boils down to simply relaying those tweets that have been added to Favorites, but not retweeted by other users on your network.
In a way, Twitter is following the path of Facebook, which also algorithmically filters the user's feed and tries to guess which is more interesting from all the content published by friends. Only here we are not talking about filtering, but about adding additional content. This can increase user activity, the number of page impressions on the site - which means Twitter’s advertising revenue.
I wonder what other experiments await us in the future?