Twitter came out with the #newnewtwitter redesign today, available to limited accounts (I’m not sure what the criteria is for this). In a word? Twitter has forgotten its reason for being.
Twitter is following instead of leading with this one.
It’s clear Twitter wants to be just like Facebook, and it thinks this is the ticket to the fabled holy grail of “monetisation”. However, Twitter has forgotten its guiding principle:
What are you doing.
Yes, the humble tweet is taking a backseat to personal profiles. Coincidentally the personal profile is how Facebook makes so much ad revenue – through targeted ads. Ever wondered how they always seem to show the right advertisements to you?
And company profiles are here as well. See Coke’s page:
The Tweet button, while very nice looking and old style, is tucked away, hidden in the upper right hand corner; honestly the last place I look for primary actions. Top left is more customary.
Check it out:
There is a tweet field under the main user stats widget, top left, but it’s seriously easy to miss (I missed it at first!)
I’m sure the folks at Twitter believe this is a logical next-step, but I think they should have first asked themselves: What’s our Reason for Being? They would have kept a tweetbar spanning the entire top of the page.
