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What does tracking apply to?
When I specify a track word, does the Twitter system then apply this filter to the updates posted ONLY by the people I follow or does Twitter use the word being tracked to retrieve the updates posted by anyone who is a Twitter user?
I hope that it's the former. In other words, I hope that tracking allows you to be notified about updates posted by people you follow BUT ONLY when they post something with the track word.
If it it's the latter then it loses its value because you could get an update from someone you do not want to follow and have no interest in.
I hope that it's the former. In other words, I hope that tracking allows you to be notified about updates posted by people you follow BUT ONLY when they post something with the track word.
If it it's the latter then it loses its value because you could get an update from someone you do not want to follow and have no interest in.
I’m amused
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Inappropriate?hi @Zbig,
Unfortunately or fortunately (depending on what you want). It is the latter. By using 'track', you'll get notification from ALL tweets, not just the people you follow. -
Inappropriate?The obvious improvement would be to build in the possibility of using one or other of the options, i.e. a search within friends or a general search. Perhaps there is a way of doing this involving a logical "AND" ... -
Inappropriate?ThomasHan, that's not what I wanted to hear because it goes against the whole concept of Twitter which is answering the question "What are you doing?"
I'm not interested in what someone in the UK that I have never even imagined existed is doing. If that person just by sheer luck happens to use in the content of his own update a word that I am tracking then I will receive it as a completely spurious notification. I imagined Twitter to be like a large restaurant. There are people sitting around many tables eating and carrying on a discussion. Some tables are large, some are small. I'm with my group of people and I'm interested in our table's discussion. The tracking function is like setting up a microphone under all the other tables and listening in on their conversations. Plus, the people at the other tables KNOW that there is microphone under their table which means that they will either limit their conversation to trivial things or they will intentionally say something to provoke a reaction. Hopefully, for the time being I will be able to get around this undesired feature by using tracking expressions that are very unique.
I’m unsure
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Inappropriate?Interesting idea: to give a choice to track within friends and within public. I think that Twitter is, so far, quite focused on as much as possible being made public. But, perhaps that could change as the service gets built out. I know I love the track feature for spotting public things I'm interested in, but I so far haven't needed to track in the way you mention.
It's funny, too, that everyone has their own idea -- or metaphor -- for how they think of Twitter. Yours as a restaurant with microphones makes for an interesting mental picture!
I came up with my own Twitter "tagline": "Twitter: The most interesting people you may never meet."
I don't think Twitter needs to do any marketing. Just harness those users to do it for them!
I’m ready to be put to work
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Inappropriate?All,
Interesting that @ZBig brought up Twitter similar to a restaurant. I'm sure I'm not the first (or @ZBig). And others probably have other similar/interesting analogies to what Twitter is.
I don't usually pimp my own blog, but back in Dec 2007, I wrote a "Twitter 101" which tries to describe Twitter to newbies as having dinner with friends :-)
Anyways, a little off-topic (which was tracking), but thought I'd share :-)
