Twitter Universe Going Crazy Over Lists
Social Media Site Upgrades its Functions; Delights Followers
Oct 31, 2009
Hard to believe that a simple four letter word like 'list' could have such an energizing, dynamic affect on hundreds of thousands of already energized, very-engaged, tech-savy social media users, but the buzz about Twitter's new feature did it. Ben Parr of the social media blog Mashable, identified "a changing dynamic floating around Twitter." But really it was more like a kind of happy hysteria.
The lists - what they are and who actually received them - topped every other "trending topic" for a time October 29th and 30th, as the social media site gradually rolled out its new feature to more and more accounts. The Twittersphere is always a noisy and crowded online universe, and it did go slightly crazy over the new function; but in a mostly good way, once the temporary confusion, lasting maybe half a day for some, but less than 5 minutes for most, lifted like a fog.
Social Media Users Surprised by Twitter Upgrade
As tweeters logged into their accounts on October 29, they were greeted by a lot of back and forth discussion in the ongoing tweet streams about some "lists." Some were just discovering lists, others were already finding themselves on dozens of lists put together by other users. Many were still confused by tweets like this:
"I HAVE TWITTER LISTS ! woot!"
And: "Sure thing! Just added you to 3 lists. Lists are easy, start by creating one of favorite peeps & go from there."
Or: "Ok, what is up with these lists here on Twitter? I don't need anything esle to confuse me on here."
Some quickly connnected the ongoing conversatioin to a message box crossing the top of their Twitter home page like a banner ad.
"New!", it said. "Lists. A great way to organize the people you follow and discover new and interesting accounts." And then, "(Beta)". And there was a button to try: "Create a new list".
By then it was fairly obvious what to do, and perhaps even potentially-obvious why one might want to go ahead and experiment, creating a list of one's own.
Timeline of Rollout of Twitter Lists
But others remained in the dark a while longer. The microblogging company needed to make the rollout smooth and steady, said Ben Parr, to assure a smooth transition for the site's millions of accounts.
And co-founder Biz Stone said it too, on Twitter's own blog: "We've been taking our time rolling out the lists feature to make sure things go smoothly....Anyone can curate and publish lists, so if you have an idea for one, just click "New List" in the sidebar of your Twitter account and you're on your way!"
For those watching the social media world closely, the Twitter list feature had been expected. It was announced on the Twitter blog in late September - an answer to "frequent requests we received from people who were looking for a better way to organize information on Twitter."
On October 15, Mashable noted that Twitter had gone live with its new Lists feature for a small test group and two weeks later noted that even more users were getting a chance to try the new feature. Marshall Kirkpatrick at ReadWriteWeb noted that by midday October 30th, Twitter lists were functioning for a majority of Twitter accounts. "And the uptake has been remarkable," said Kirkpatrick, noting that one of the prime aspects of the social web is its ability to bring people with like-minded interests together into groups.
"This is exciting because curation of dynamic sources is exciting. This is a particulalry accessible way to do what syndication geeks have been thrilled by for years," said Kirkpatrick.
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