Am I the only one around here that is starting to suffer from Social Media Exhaustion?? Over the last few months, Google has launched its own social network, Facebook rolled out an extensive revamp, Klout changed it algorithm, YouTube changed its look, and now Twitter has also rolled out a major overhaul.
About a year and a half ago, Twitter introduced New Twitter, which took the interface from a single column to a wider format that was more information-rich. Over the last couple of months, they’ve added small upgrades, like a built-in link shortener and the ability to upload photos (prior to this, you had to use a link shortening program like tiny.url or bit.ly, and a photo-to-Twitter program like TwitPic or YFrog).
Or, like me, you’d just bypass the Twitter.com interface all together, and use a Twitter client, like Tweetdeck, Seesmic, or the local darling, Hootsuite.
The new interface of Twitter, rolling out last week and this one, is called Fly Twitter, but most folks online are calling it #NewNewTwitter. You can read more about its functionality on fly.twitter.com.
But I have been using the Twitter app on my iPhone, and the other day I hit “Update All” on my apps, and when I went to tweet from my phone, was in for a bit of a shock. My experience, and the feedback that I’m also hearing from other users, is that the Twitter app for mobile phones is much cludgier than the previous incarnation. I find it more challenging to switch between multiple accounts, for example. I’m also finding that the new Twitter app “hangs” a little, and is slow for typing.
Overall, my impression of #NewNewTwitter is that it is going to be easier for new Twitter users, but for those of us who are old chestnuts (which, in the world of social media is like, a year), it’s probably not going to impress. Check out Robert Scoble’s G+ post on Fly Twitter.
Have you gotten Fly Twitter yet? What’s your impression so far?