Twitter Needs Networks
February 6, 2008 by Kate Olson
My daily “why doesn’t this exist?” thought - if it does exist and I missed it, please fill me in!
After reading a Classroom 2.0 Forum discussion yesterday on networking on Twitter, I realized that Twitter is sorely missing something - networks. On Facebook you have the capability to join a particular network based on location, interests, etc. Twitter NEEDS this to maximize its usefulness. Currently, when you join Twitter you have to find someone who is interested in everything that you’re interested in and then attempt to follow everyone who they’re following. Trust me, this takes a LOT of time. Twitter does currently search your email contacts for current twitter-ers, but this doesn’t help at all if you want to network with NEW people. Also, based on Frank’s findings in the forum discussion, the new twitter search feature leaves a lot to be desired.
My dream is this:
- When you create a twitter account, you select certain interests (or create a new category that will then be added to the category list)
- These interests will then link you to all others interested in the same thing (i.e. edtech, education, Classroom 2.0, etc)
- You will then have the choice to either follow or not follow each person in that network
I have absolutely NO idea how to implement this and actually have no desire to try - totally out of my league. But after reading the forum discussion on it yesterday, I thought, there HAS to be a better way………….thoughts?
Create a free edublog to get your own comment avatar (and more!)
Good idea. Groups might be helpful.
I do like the simplicity of twitter though. As most of the people on there (or at least the ones I follow) are ed tech people I wonder if an ed tech network would really whittle it down.
Kate
You have floated a great idea.
Kate .. I think if twitter just added “tags” that would solve it, as long as they are searchable.
I griped (for like the 4th time) privately to twitter and publicly in Classroom 2.0 about the “holes” in their search results. And, now I see that twitter has disabled search since yesterday. I hope this means that they will finally fix search so that it will be a useful and reliable tool!
-Frank
Try Jaiku. It has groups, plus the possibility to add comments into jaikus (equivalets for tweets) which made me definitely move from Twitter to Jaiku. It also has more options for mobile or IM posting.
Most of the appeal of these social networks is precisely the social part though, so if most of your contacts use Twitter it’s no use in changing services - you’ll probably find yourself alone there. OR you could convince all your friends to move
Oh, and it has just been bought by Google recently, in case this means something.
Think you’re absolutely right. I want to find midwives and health professionals but have no idea how to do this.
I think that this is a fantastic idea, especially as someone new to Twittering. I would like to find people with my interests. Unfortunately, I have no idea how this can be achieved, but I am sure it is possible.
I really enjoy reading your blogs!
Good idea. It took me ages to see much use for Twitter because I was a Nigel No-friends and spent most of the time talking to myself. Only after stumbling onto someone I knew and slowly growing roots did Twitter start to have an inherent value and use to me.
Having a way to quickly locate like-minded people would encourage up-take far more quickly, and make the tool really useful I think.
That said I agree with Mathew as well. I wouldn’t want to see Twitter become a really heavy app either. Though I do see ways to have both. First off make the search better, because the current one is really no good at all.
All -
I’m so happy to see that so many of you agree with my idea! Now if we could just make it happen………hmmm, i’ll work on that
And don’t worry, i’ll bring you in on the billion dollar idea! Making the search better could help, but twitter would have to better clarify this - at this point they don’t really mention that your profile is how people would search for you. And the next issue with this is that there would have to be some sort of standardized tagging - the same problem with tagging in every app. It only works if we all think alike, which we very much DON’T! And Matthew - check out the public timeline! Twitter is NOT just edtech 
This is one of my frustrations - you only know YOUR network and it’s difficult to even know what else is out there. Tweetscan is an interesting way to search for things, but it’s just clumsy and not reliable. I’m going to stick with my network idea 
Also, even WITH networks, I still don’t think Twitter is going to go mainstream, and that’s a-ok w/ me.
I seem to recall hearing there are ways you can use search engines to locate Twitter users via specific search queries. But heck if I remember how to do it. Will post as comment if I can find it.
Oooh hey look at this. Someone claiming to be Steve Rubel has created a Twitter Search tool using Google Custom Search. Only used it quickly, but it’s locating my Tweets as well as yours, Kate.
Click here to visit the site.
I still think tags is the answer .. everything is tag-based these days. Selectable categories are too limiting. Standardized would be too limiting too. Yahoo-style directories are 20th century tools.
People would look at other’s tags to “get it right” and hone in on their custom tag set … tags allow for emerging cultural shifts as well, as they are more organic than predetermined categories or standardized labels.
There are hashtags you can add to your twitter posts to form impromptu groups. Say the group is #ours and then use Twitter tracking or tweetscan.com to search for posts that are #ours. More ideas at http://twitter.pbwiki.com/Hashtags
I’ve also seen groups use one twitter address, and follow or reply as necessary….
Love your blog, Kate!