How Twitter can improve Trending Topics

Twitter’s 10 Trending Topics are a great way to jump into conversations that are already well underway. They’re also a great way to find out about the big news that Twitter users are talking about, blogging about and putting their unique spins on.

The next step that Twitter needs to take with the Trending Topics is allowing users to clear any topic from the list that they are not interested in. Clicking one of the X’s (show below) would then cause “waiting” topics to scale upwards.

As an example, if you eliminated the 9th topic, the 10th topic would slide up to the 9th position and the 11th most talked about topic on Twitter would then assume the position of the 10th Trending Topic.

For those that may doubt the possibility of this feature, remember: Twitter knows exactly what its users are talking about by recognizing the frequency of words and phrases. Just as it can assemble the list of the 10 most talked about things on Twitter, it can assemble a list of 20 or 50 or 100 topics.

Implementing user elimination of unwanted Trending Topics would allow for a more personalized Twitter experience. Everyone uses Twitter differently — my favorite meme may be the bane of your existence; your favorite celebrity’s tragic death may be uninteresting to me.

In November, Twitter noted that they’re taking steps to improve their Trending Topics as the clutter increases, though they say not much will be noticeable at first due to minor changes in the infrastructure of Trending Topics.

We should all be able to use the tools that Twitter provides to our advantage, if we’re so inclined. I use Twitter in more of a news-oriented way than other users may. You may love your memes and not my news. Shouldn’t we all be able to get more of what we want?

  1. zackshapiro posted this
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