Twitter Rolls Out New Retweet Feature
By Anna Johnson on November 11th, 2009Yesterday Twitter confirmed that it was continuing to extend its new retweet feature to more Twitter users.
Twitter co-founder Evan Williams announced Twitter’s plan to introduce a built-in retweet feature back in September. Since then the feature has attracted both fans and detractors. So what’s all the fuss about?
Firstly, as most Twitter users will know, retweeting is a way for a Twitter user to forward another Twitter user’s tweet to the first Twitter user’s followers.
You can manually retweet something by copying someone else’s tweet and then typing ‘RT @[name of author]‘ before the message and posting it, or you can use one of the many third party Twitter clients to automate the process. Peoplebrowsr, for example, enables you to click on someone’s avatar and select ‘retweet’ to retweet the message to your followers.
While third party developers (such as Peoplebrowsr) have given people automated tools to retweet and, I might add, create lists (something which Twitter finally released a couple of weeks ago), Twitter has long stood on the sidelines of these developments.
Until now.
Explaining the delay, Evan Williams said in his September blog post that Twitter wanted to do something more ‘fundamental’ than what many of the third party Twitter clients had developed. Twitter also wanted its feature to overcome some of the drawbacks of retweeting:
- The potential for people to modify retweets so that what is originally said gets changed or for people to be inappropriately or wrongly attributed;
- Excessive retweeting by people who are ‘retweet happy’;
- Getting the same retweet from multiple people; and
- The difficulty in tracking retweets (although some third party services have attempted to track these).
With a view to preserving retweeting as we know and love it, Twitter’s new retweet feature is designed to overcome these drawbacks.
Basically, the Twitter retweet feature consists of a retweet link below or alongside each tweet in your Twitter stream. You simply click on the retweet button and the tweet is sent to your followers.
You can’t edit the retweet so there’s no risk of manipulation. Plus, your Twitter stream will show the avatar and username of the original author of the tweet – along with the person who retweeted it in the associated metadata – which eliminates the potential for inappropriate or wrongful attribution.
Because the retweets are built natively into the Twitter system, they’re also trackable. This also means Twitter can ensure you only get the first copy of something that’s retweeted multiple times.
On top of all this, Twitter will give you a new setting to enable you to turn retweets off and on on a per-user basis. This means you can still follow someone – and their original tweets – without having to view all their retweets.
In his blog post, Evan Williams conceded that, among other things, by denying the ability for people to edit retweets, they don’t get to annotate or comment on them. This may be something Twitter implements in the future. Meanwhile, you can still manually quote someone’s tweet rather than retweet it.
Personally, I like Twitter’s retweet feature – specifically because it addresses the drawbacks mentioned above. Hopefully, Peoplebrowsr (my preferred Twitter client) and the other third party developers will modify their own retweet buttons to align with Twitter’s retweet functionality.
Look out for Twitter’s retweet button in your Twitter stream some time soon!
Sources: Twitter, “Retweet rollout continues,” Twitter, November 10, 2009; Evan Williams, “Why Retweet Works The Way It Does,” evhead, September 21, 2009
