Twitter Launches Retweet Options

By Ben Haber

November 11th, 2009

Yesterday Twitter launched a new feature allowing users to retweet posts on Twitter.com. However, this functionality – which was previously unavailable – is set up a little differently then people may be used to:

• Instead of clicking a retweet symbol over someone’s picture, there is an option on the lower right-hand side of the person’s post to retweet.
• You don’t have the option to add/change content in your retweet.
• There is an option on the right side of the screen to (next to replies, DMs) to view only retweets from the people you follow.

You will also see posts in your feed from people that you don’t follow. This isn’t a mistake, but Twitter recommending certain posts/users to you, that have been retweeted by people you follow (see image below). This could be a great way to expand your network and discover some new people that would be great to follow, and simply positions the retweet in a different light then we’re used to (from the originally author instead of the person retweeting the post).

You also have the option of turning off retweet updates from specific users on their home page. This can be done by clicking the button next to follow/unfollow.

Overall, Twitter gets a positive grade for their new retweet functionality. However, Twitter’s one mistake is now allowing users to add content in the posts that they retweet.

Entry Filed under: Twitter