Twitter experiments with non-chronological timelines
Is nothing sacred? First, Twitter got rid of ‘faves’ and replaced them with ‘hearts’. And now, Twitter is experimenting with non-chronological timelines.
The non-chronological timeline has only been rolled out to a few users so far, although those treated to the feature aren’t particularly happy about it.
One tweeted “Hey @twitter I do not want my timeline in random, non-chronological order.
That’s why I want to burn Facebook to the ground”. Initial responses may not be indicative of wider support, however — the primary responses to Twitter’s replacement of faves has now been mostly forgotten.[related-posts]
One of Twitter’s selling points is its use as a platform for breaking news a strength reflected in Twitter Moments, the site’s new story curation feature, which puts the onus on trusted news sources. It is unclear how the rejigged chronology would affect publishers and journalists’ ability to respond to and break fast-moving news.
Twitter has described the feature as an “experiment”, so only time will tell if the feature is here to stay.
“This is an experiment. We’re continuing to explore ways to surface the best content for people using Twitter,” a spokesperson told WIRED.
