LONDON: In the online social world ‘Like’ is something we associate with Facebook, and now Twitter has also decided to convert the star icon that represented Favourite to a heart shape that means ‘Like’. Now, over the years, we’ve seen Twitter and Facebook borrow the best from each other. Remember how Twitter built a Facebook-like profile page design and Facebook on the other hand borrowed features like Mentions and Follow.
However, this time there is more than just emulating the features of its competitor. As Twitter grapples with revenue-making and adding more numbers (though last quarter it saw a substantial growth), it is looking for a more interactive platform. Lately, Twitter has undergone a series of changes including its new CEO Jack Dorsey. Everything boils down to two important factors for Twitter – revenue and expanding its reach.
Favourites was introduced back in 2006 and it meant you could easily archive a tweet before it was lost in those endless number of 140 characters that kept filling your stream. While users seem to have loved the feature, it didn’t really bring much to the table when it came to advertisers.
While announcing the new feature, Twitter explained the change from stars to hearts as “not everything can be your favorite” along with a tweet that shows how heart resonates with almost everything from like and lol to yes and awww. “A star is not a heart. A favorite is not a like. The newest mode of engagement on Twitter is a bit less versatile, a bit less powerful, a bit more compressed,” points out TheVerge.
A heart that means ‘I like’ adds a positive approach to the Twitter platform that is more popular for venting out at service providers, making it more powerful as an interactive platform and eventually benefiting advertisers. And these minor changes could gradually help put the micro-blogging site on track.
For instance, in terms of revenue, the company exceeded analyst expectations, but in spite of the growth, its stocks dropped and the company faced a loss in millions after taxes. Making money has been a problem, and Twitter is trying to learn the tricks of the trade to ensure that it woos advertisers and eventually investors.
Another challenge has been how to increase its reach and make more people join the platform. In the past, we’ve seen reports stating people find Twitter difficult, and with the new changes the company is also probably trying to make it easier to understand. People can relate to a heart shaped button that means ‘Like’ rather than simply favourite a tweet, which they may or may not return to check again. So, we won’t be surprised to see a few more buttons over the time as the company will try making it more engaging.
“It thinks stars are too hard for people who are new to Twitter to understand, but they’ll fundamentally get a heart. And because it needs to grow to make Wall Street happy, Twitter cares a lot more about those new users than it does its existing ones,” explains BuzzFeed.
Now, essentially, nothing has changed except the icon being changed to heart and now being called a like. So, your archived tweets are right there under a new heart shaped icon. However, not many are taking to like the new move, while it doesn’t really matter to some others.