July is upon us, and with that comes fireworks, festivities, and a brand new Twitter finding for all of you hashtagging fanatics out there. On July 6th, Twitter introduced its latest upgrade in search and discovery technology, thus streamlining the process of searching for topics on Twitter.
Twitter’s new features, in a nutshell, are:
- New autocomplete features that show both people and search terms
- Spell check for search terms so that people get the right results every time
- Related suggestions showing similar terms and trends
- Results showing both real names and usernames
- Tweets from people you know and follow, not just the most popular tweets
What does this mean for Twitter users? More reliable, relatable search results faster along with some added bonus features. The update, which follows the decision to remove hashbangs and other connection-slowing technology, makes Twitter all the more enticing to news seekers who desire real time updates. Some social media gurus such as VentureBeat are even saying that the innovative search technology from Twitter will be even more reliable than Google.
Speaking of Google…
Many claim that the decision to restructure the Twitter search and discovery tools came out of a spat over Google’s search engine policy. The newly invented policy would prioritize search results from Google’s own social media site, Google+, while allegedly filtering out search results for businesses and news sources that were not involved on Google+. While the 62 million users on Google+ would benefit greatly from the upgrade, the 500 million Twitter users would be effectively shafted as a result (people who are both on Google+ and Twitter aside). Twitter spokesman Matt Graves argued that, “As a result of Google’s changes, finding this information [news] will be much harder for everyone. We think that’s bad for people, publishers, news organizations and Twitter users.”
Twitter users fall into their own special category because Twitter has revealed itself to be its own unique blend of news broadcasting and professional networking as well as casual social interaction. This is a twist from the traditional social network, which focuses mainly on one’s own tight-knit circle of friends and branches out less frequently. This differentiates it from other social media networks and makes it a breed of its own. Because of this, Twitter’s news function specifically has earned it the title of a pseudo-RSS feed because of the frequency with which it updates news, audio, video, and other media pertinent to the times. For most, Twitter is a super-simplified RSS feed instead of a place to broadcast their own thoughts or concerns. By changing the way in which users search for content on Twitter, it has perpetuated the image of itself as a streamlined RSS news feed for the common man, even without Google’s help. Its search and discover updates put it in a prime position to widen its user base and create more business for itself despite the lack of endorsement from its rivals.
