Twitter kills wildly unpopular QuickBar !!
The only real surprise is that it took this long: Twitter has released
an update to its iPhone app that eradicates the QuickBar,
a pop-up display of rotating "trending topics" that users
seemed to find almost universally annoying and nonhelpful.
Twitter claimed that people did, in fact, interact with the heavily
maligned feature, which was initially released earlier this month.
"Rather than continue to make changes to the QuickBar as it exists,
we removed the bar from the update appearing in the App Store
today," a post on the Twitter blog explained. "We believe there are
still significant benefits to increasing awareness of what's
happening outside the home timeline. Evidence of the incredibly
high usage metrics for the QuickBar support this."
With insidery tech circles dubbing the feature "dickbar" in
reference to Twitter CEO Dick Costolo and the oft-derogatory
alternate meaning of his first name, it was clear that even
if ordinary users didn't care, some influential people thought
it was a terrible user experience.
"We will frequently experiment by trying new things,
adding new features, and being bold in the product
decisions we make," the blog post added. "After testing
a feature and evaluating its merits, if we learn it doesn't
improve the user experience or serve our mission,
we'll remove that feature."
The direction of Twitter's product development is likely
to make a few twists and turns these days, given the company's
recent changes in management. Twitter co-founder
Jack Dorsey recently returned to the company as executive
chairman, while fellow co-founder Evan Williams has stepped
away from full-time participation there. Costolo,
hired as chief operating officer, replaced Williams as CEO last fall.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)