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Twitter's Forthcoming Redesign Could Be Exactly What It Needs To Increase User Engagement
Twitter's Forthcoming Redesign Could Be Exactly What It Needs To Increase User Engagement
Cooper SmithFeb 13, 2014, 04:09 IST
Social Insideris delivered first thing every morning exclusively toBI Intelligencesubscribers. Business Insider/TwitterTWITTER REDESIGN: Twitter is testing a major redesign to its service, according to some users who spotted a dramatic change to their profiles yesterday. The new interface is closer in appearance to Facebook's profile design than anything Twitter has designed in the past. Most notably, the user's profile photo is much larger and is off-set to the left side of the page. All of the content on a user's profile timeline is scaled significantly larger, making it easier to view text and photos. The whole layout is strikingly more visual than the current profile interface. (Mashable) CAN IT INCREASE USER ENGAGEMENT?: Timeline views, which are an important metric for measuring user engagement on Twitter, declined for the first time ever. Specifically, users viewed the Twitter timeline 11 billion fewer times than they did in the previous quarter, about a 7% fall off. We predicted this worrying trend in a chart we published last month. Declining timeline views means users are searching less within Twitter and refreshing their timelines less frequently to show the latest tweets. Fewer timeline views results in fewer ad opportunities. A lot of power users prefer to use a third-party service such as TweetDeck to manage their Twitter accounts. Furthermore, we've heard countless anecdotes from layman Internet users who say they simply don't understand how Twitter works. However, if Twitter can redesign user profiles to make them feel more familiar to a wider audience, it could help retain new users and convince power users to spend more time on the site itself, rather than opting for a third-party Twitter client. (BI Intelligence) YOUTUBE MOBILE SITE REDESIGN: Google is testing changes to the interface of YouTube's mobile site that will make it more consistent with the look and feel of its Android app. Among the changes is an improved navigation menu and cleaner video pages. Other top web properties are also making their services appear more consistent across devices. Twitter recently redesigned its website based on the look and feel of its Android and iOS apps; however, as discussed above, another redesign may be in the works for Twitter that would make it look more like Facebook and Google+ than any of Twitter's current apps. (Android Police)NETFLIX CONDUCTS DEEP LEARNING: Netflix published a blog post revealing that it has been experimenting quite extensively with algorithmic techniques to improve image-, language-, and speech-based recognition, domains that fall under the scientific field of deep learning. The video streaming service said that it has been trying to apply such techniques to improve its own product, but did not reveal what specific research is being done to improve personalization. Netflix has approximately 44 million users who stream two billion hours of video every month. That's a huge collection of data about viewing habits.Aside from improving the relevancy of video recommendations on its own platform, there are a number of other media companies that would benefit from Netflix's deep learning endeavors. For example, Netflix could eventually share insights with movie studios about viewing habits. Netflix is joining Google, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and a number of other top consumer Web properties that are now pouring resources into deep learning. For more on deep learning and how it's being used by Web properties, check out our new report on the frontiers in social media big data. (Netflix)GOOGLE PARTNERS WITH COMSCORE: comScore's real-time measurement tools for cross-screen marketers will soon be available to Google's DoubleClick clients, both publishers and marketers. The integration will require a testing period, but it will be available in the U.S. later this year for desktop-based display and video ads, and will eventually expand to mobile platforms. Many of the world's largest agencies and advertisers use DoubleClick, so the partnership is a win-win situation for all parties involved. (Wall Street Journal)QUOTE OF THE DAY: "This is a tipping point for brand advertising in the digital realm … SMG [Starcom MediaVest Group] strongly supports any effort to deliver comScore's campaign validation on a wider scale ... and there is no platform that can better accomplish that than DoubleClick" - Lisa Weinstein, President, Global Digital, Data & Analytics, Starcom MediaVest Group KLOUT TO BE ACQUIRED: Lithium Technologies is reportedly acquiring Klout, a service that measures an individual's influence on social media. Lithium Technologies develops tools for brands to conduct customer service on social networks, so it makes sense that the company wants to help brands identify influential social media users. (Business Insider)YAHOO ACQUIRES SOCIAL STARTUP: Yahoo acquired social startup Wander for $10 million; the startup developed the visual diary app called Days. The acquisition is being labeled as a scoop of talented engineers. For now, the app will continue to operate as a standalone service. Yahoo has acquired a number of social media apps over the past twelve months - most notably, Tumblr. (VentureBeat)TWITTER VS. FACEBOOK ON MOBILE: Nielsen's U.S. Digital Consumer Report finds that 85% of Twitter users' time on the social network is spent on mobile compared to 57% on Facebook. Facebook still accounts for much more time-spend. While mobile is clearly Twitter's strength, and where most social activity is heading, the desktop is still important and may be where Twitter looks to boost engagement through efforts like the profile redesign. (Mashable)200 MILLION FACEBOOK USERS 'LOOK BACK': The social network reports that about 200 million users watched the Look Back videos of their time on the social network, which Facebook distributed for its 10th anniversary. (CNET)Here's what else BI Intelligence subscribers are reading …How The Big Three Social Networks Stacked Up In Audience Growth For 2013Turns Out We Were Wrong About Tablets - Growth Has Peaked, And Phablets Are To BlameWhither Payments Growth? Traditional Players Look To New Mobile And Credit Card TechSocial Media's New Big Data Frontiers - Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning, And Predictive MarketingLinkedIn Engagement Weakens But Its Ad Business Keeps Growing
