I’ve still got a hmm-ahh kind of relationship with Twitter. On the one hand it brings me content that I might not otherwise see, but as a communications medium I think it’s pretty woeful. Stupid little things like having to remember how many direct messages I had last time I checked so I can work out if I’ve got any new ones. Or the awful conversational threading.
And, btw, the exploit we mentioned last year – the one that made the pages of The Guardian and The Times? – still there.
Boobiewed??
But, today there’s nothing to blog about till Steve Jobs descends to Earth in a fiery chariot from Mount Ararat with his New! Revolutionary! device, so I suppose we should have a look at the latest Twitter feature – local trends.
Basically, you get to choose a country by means of… err… choosing a country in a little menu option and then you’ll see relevant Tweets.
Firstly, this is a pretty primitive way of going about things. While geolocating through IP might have it’s flaws it’s good enough for Google and pretty much everyone else so why Twitter are plumping for this “tell me what country in which you are located” business is anyone’s guess. Anyway, once you’ve done that, you start to see trending topics among other users from your chosen country.
The results are, predictably, weird. This morning, ‘mango juice‘ is a trending topic in the UK. Amusingly, almost every tweet about it read “WTF? Why is #mangojuice a trending UK topic?” which, of course, carries on perpetuating it. Maybe it will never end and will be a mystery for future historians to unravel, or the 2114 version of Dan Brown to base a novel on.
Actually, the answer is probably because not many people have set a UK preference. Probably 3 retweets is enough at the moment to set off a trending topic (as evidenced by the ‘boobiewed’ trend that’s cropped up since I started writing this post).
Slater also made the point that one of the great things about Twitter is that you get to see what’s happening around the world. Iran protests… plane crashes in New York… earthquakes… all these things are massive news and often surface first on Twitter, giving you a heads up on the news. Do you think Twitter is going to be enhanced if there’s another 9/11 and you’re busily trying to decipher why ‘mangojuice’ is trending?
So personally, I’m giving it a resounding ‘meh’. You, of course, will have your own opinion… and the floor is open as ever 
9 Comments
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- 2
I like this little feature letting you drill down to a “more” local level and see what the main conversations are about. Currently Spain is not covered so I’m checking out Ireland and the United Kingdom and your right, sure enough, some of the trends, are.. well..a bit stupid really.
But give it a little time and I think as it gains friction it could become another important feature of twitter and a useful way of localising and networking within your reach, rather than the “bull horn” of talking about worldwide trending subjects that have little or no relevence to you directly.
- 3
sureyly the lack of geolocating through IP allows users more flexibility and can only be a good thing. I personally would rather view local trends in the US, at the moment anyway, than learn about the sudden rise of Mango Juice as a topic of conversation in the UK.
- 4
Why such a short list of locations?
It wouldn’t have really been difficult to include IP geo targeting and also enabling users to pick any Country in the world!
Feeling rather left out in Cyprus.. although i’m sure the trending topics would be about how damn cold it is!
- 5
It would be wonderful sweet if we could also work in overturn and start with the trend and rank the cities in order by volume.
- 6
I noticed this, this morning. The most random thing twitter has done, surely they should as google is doing, use geo targeting on your ip to show the most relevant tweets specific to your area? But just showing UK again throws up all sorts of weird results.
Twitter really need to up there game. Fact…..
- 7
Cheer up, you don’t have to remember your last DM from twitter.
Simply have them hit your phone automatically. Or use a 3rd party app like TweetDeck or a firefox add-on so you get them in real-time. After all that’s what Twitter is about.
- 8
I think as an option it’s probably good, but as a previous commenter has said you can get your UK news from other sources.
- 9
“than learn about the sudden rise of Mango Juice as a topic of conversation in the UK.”
Always handy for Mango juice Sales Men.
I’ll be keeping my options as worldwide – I can get my UK news from other sources