Twitter Inc (NASDAQ:TWTR) received negative reactions from users after it started posting the favorite tweets of other people on their timeline.
Users are now seein which posts were retweeted or favorite by their followers. Favorites represent a star icon next to a tweet, and it is similar to the Like feature of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB). It is a discreet way of showing appreciation to the originator of a particular post.
On the other hand, when a person retweeted a post using the retweet icon, a person is showing his or her active support to it.
Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) is experimenting on the new favorites feature to an unknown number of users. Last year, the management of the company disclosed that it is more active in testing new feautures.
In a blog post last year, Twitter’s vice president of engineering Alex Roetter said, “In recent months, that trend has picked up–so much so that it’s rare for a day to go by when we’re not releasing at least one experiment.” At the time, he assured users that the company will not implement ideas that do not receive positive feedback.
Roetter emphasized, “Those experiments are perhaps even more valuable because they help us decide what not to do–which is important as we work to keep Twitter simple while improving the user experience. Ultimately, our goal is to learn and keep making the product better; we aren’t necessarily looking to launch all of the experiments we roll out.”
Given his previous statement, Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) will definitely discontinue showing the favorite post on users’ time line. Singer Josh Groban and Anna Kendrick asked the the company to stop its experiment.
Others said they don’t want to see on their timeline the favorites of other people. Some expressed concern that Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) seemed becoming more like Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB).
