Old Twitter vs. New Twitter

First off, on Twitter, I do not consider myself a guru and I have no clue of what I am talking about. Or do I?

Since March or April 2009, I'm using Twitter (thanks @soenarko for introducing us) and I must say that I find it a cute little idea. Nothing too pretentious, nor too too serious. A great way to get in touch, stay in touch and devour your daily portion of news and nonsense. It's free, easy and it's hip.

So far so good. All nice, the integration of Facebook, Amplify, Blogger (si, señor), and innumerable other websites and services. Great. And free. The fact that the Feds can get to all your (private) messages - even after losing your account - shouldn't be the party pooper. Well .. actually, there IS no party pooper. All is just plain wonderful.

We use Twitter on our smart phones, share our most intimate moments (gonna have a crap, brb @fredhandl, love ya) and get highly upset when we see the fail whale. But, it's all fun and games.

UNTIL!

Until the geniuses at Twitter decided that the website that had started it all (and thus made Twitter as big as it's now) needed a make over. A complete make over. Twitter 2.0.

I'm pro-progress and I'm the last person to say we should stay living in the past and the old days were so much better (my God .. remember teh MSX and the Commodore 64? - yes, indeed, still cool - in an emulator, perhaps - .. but imagine it being your only machine ... 

And now, the 'new' Twitter is approaching, making MANY people unhappy. Not because the new one is coming, but because of the message: "You’re using an older version of Twitter that won’t be around for much longer." With to the right of it, a big yellow button, saying: "Switch to new Twitter!"

I have clicked that button and I've seen the future. And, oh my dear, it sucks. Well, let's say that I thought so. And then I asked around.

No, I have no numbers or fancy stats, but I haven't heard/read anybody say the New Twitter is better. But if it is ... please let me know, for I have not yet found ONE advantage of the new Twitter, over the old one. Vice versa, I have. Clicking Reply, for example, add the user in your message field, clicking Reply from another message, will add the sender of that message to your message field. Most handy, on Fridays.

So, what I do NOT understand, is that the people behind this great success formula, don't seem to listen to their users and follow in the footsteps of other large companies, that I shall not name. So ... Zuckerberg, or what's his name. A billionaire. Congrats, man. Really! He stays loyal to the Facebook interface (however inconvenient it is), for his users learned it like that and don't want a make over.

But then teh guys at Twitter, noooo ... they're MAKING us use the new twitter, since "We’re using an older version of Twitter that won’t be around for much longer." Hello-o? Why? Let people at least CHOOSE. I can't imagine maintaining the old Twitter page is such rocket science that you can't keep it - aside from the new one. I mean ... that would show you, right? Do some A-B testing and see which version people like better. Well, I'll tell you: they like the OLD one. And you, you - I'm sure - like the new one, for whatever reasons. You should listen to you users, that made Twitter big. It's even possible they made it big, BECAUSE of the old interface. But with changing it (and leaving people no choice) ... you'll never know, now, will you?

Okay, I'm done ranting.

Old Twitter vs, New Twitter: 1-0

© Fred Händl - 2010