Twitter says the experiment yielded “user enjoyment,” so they made it permanent.
A few months ago, Twitter started experimenting with inserting recommended tweets into users’ timelines whether they follow the tweeter or not. Like it or not, Twitter announced this morning that the practice is now permanent.
In a Friday-morning blog post, Twitter product manager Trevor O’Brien wrote: “There are times when you might miss out on tweets we think you’d enjoy. To help you keep up with what’s happening, we’ve been testing ways to include these tweets in your timeline–ones we think you’ll find interesting or entertaining.”
He added that Twitter’s testing revealed that “most people enjoy seeing tweets from accounts they may not follow.” But the most vocal Twitter users strongly disagree. A scan of the replies to the social network’s tweet on the subject shows a range of reactions from “No!” to “NOOOOOOO!!!!”
But it was Gizmodo’s Jamie Condliffe who put it best, writing, “The noisiest social media platform just got even noisier.”
Amen.
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