When I set up Microsoft Outlook for the first time on a new computer, or I set up a new folder in an old version of Microsoft Outlook, the first thing I do is turn off that darn preview pane! I abhor that thing. I have three reasons for my dislike of the Outlook preview pane:
1. I don’t want emails opening up automatically without my say-so. If that email is not from a source I trust, they could embed malicious code into the email that activates because the preview pane is opening my message.
2. If a person requests a read receipt be sent to them upon my opening their email, even if I don’t read the email, but it opens in the preview pane, they’ll get a message back saying that I read their email. If I haven’t, and there’s information in it for which I’m going to be held responsible, I can’t explain to them that it was the preview pane and not me. They have the “proof” in their Tracking that I “read” their message.
3. There are just some emails I have no desire to see whatsoever; usually that’s some “Forward” someone has sent claiming that I have to send the email to 10 other people and back to the sender to prove I love Jesus or some nonsense like that. Really? As much as I do love Jesus, I don’t feel like I have to participate in a chain email to prove that. Go somewhere and sit down! I abhor chain emails more than “Forwards.” If I don’t want that crap in my mental Rolodex, having the preview pane display it to me when I click on the email subject defeats the purpose of allowing me to select the emails I want to read and the emails I want to “Trash” right off the bat.
Why this rant about Microsoft Outlook’s preview pane feature if this post is about the new Twitter?
Because that’s what the new Twitter reminds me of. The widened layout seems to me to have created this “preview-pane-look” that doesn’t really serve any purpose for my needs. Actually none of the features in the new Twitter move me all that much.
I was a guest on a radio show a few months ago, and I was asked if I thought this new Twitter would replace third-party applications like TweetDeck, Seesmic and HootSuite.
My answer was an emphatic, “NO!”
The folks at Twitter got it all wrong with the new features. What many of us want is the ability to see all the columns of our Twitter account at the same time. With the new Twitter, you still have to click from link to link to link to see all updates, your @mentions and your Direct Messages. And the new handling of Direct Messages just annoys the heck out of me. I mean, there are only so many you can see at all, unless I’m missing the “more” button that lets be go further and further back in that part of my Twitter stream. Someone help me out if I’m wrong on that one. Oh, yes. That part of the timeline is no longer called Direct Messages. It’s now just Messages. Why not just call it “Inbox?” OK. Maybe I’m being too picky. Forgive me.
Did you notice that we lost the “more” feature at the bottom of our @mentions of our timelines, too? There’s no “more” going back hours and hours to previous tweets. You better “Favorite” everything you think you might want to see later. When you get to the bottom of the timeline, your only choice is “Back to top.” Uh… Thanks.
Oh, gosh! Another thing I dislike about the new Twitter is having those darn “trending topics” right in my line of sight. I detest most of the nonsense that ends up trending; just made-up tackiness that shows the silliness of so many people. Ugh. Deliver me. I ended up switching my country to Brazil, so I at least don’t have to see any of the U.S. trending topics that make me itch from annoyance.
As for Following/Followers, we gain a huge “Unfollow” button on the Followers page, but we now have to click the person’s bio or username to get the “preview pane” to show up to see if they’re following us, to send them a Direct Message, to send them an @mention, to block them or to report them. That used to be all integrated in a compact place that is way more convenient than having to click to activate another pane.
Sigh.
I’d really like to keep the old and simple Twitter, if I’m not going to gain the ability to see all my pages in column form. To me, that was what made Twitter web unique; it’s simplicity. When I didn’t want all the columns of TweetDeck, I would go to Twitter web just to be in my Direct Messages or just to be in my @mentions.
I mean, if I’ve got to change my Twitter background, please give me some features that make it worth my while.
What do you think?
Am I totally off-base with this post?
Have you found things you like about the new Twitter? If so, tell me. I want to know.
Since the older version of Twitter is going away soon, as the message says, I need to get a warm-fuzzy about the new Twitter.
You got anything for me, good people?
All of your gripes are well-grounded…but I still like the new Twitter better than the older one. The newer tabs are just more accessible to me, I think. The side panel works for not having to actually open a new page to see stuff like youtube videos, or certain picture links, but for the most part, I completely ignore the side panel. (Except when I’m clicking to comment, and the side panel changes, that’s a tab bit bothersome to have to close, but refreshing the page, after I’ve gone as far as I want to helps with that also.)
What I WISH Twitter would do is create a filter option for the web-version like there is on the TweetDeck version. That would be AWESOME for me.
Mostly, I use the web-version only at work and the TweetDeck version at home.
I don’t think you’re going to get that warm & fuzzy if you don’t like it already, though. LOL
Thanks for your comment. I think you’re right; no “warm, fuzzy” for Faydra Deon on this one. 😀
Good call. The new twitter is terrible. I agree. I don’t like the fact that I can’t see all my direct messages. Where will they all go when we can’t click back to the old twitter. I have a lot of important contact info from people in there and I don’t want to lose it all. Also… I don’t like that when you delete a direct message, you are also deleting it from the other persons direct messages. That’s annoying. I can’t clean out my direct messages because the people that I sent messages to will lose the messages that I have sent them.
Oh, goodness! I didn’t realize that if I delete a Direct Message, the other person’s Direct Message is deleted, too! This is awful. No wonder I go looking for old DMs and can’t find them. Hm.
Frankly, I don’t use it very much. I spend most of my time tweeting from other applications.