Fri 16th of April, filed under Social Media
Google Labs have unveiled a new experimental service which allows Twitter users to view a tailor-made list of recommended profiles for them to follow. The news comes from Chirp, the official Twitter developer conference meeting, which took place in Toronto on the 14 and 15 of April, and was announced on the Google blog.
Follow Finder is described as using public following and follower lists to group together recommended ‘tweeps’. All a user has to do is enter their Twitter ID into Follow Finder and they will be presented with their specialised list. “The lists in Google Follow Finder are generated using public following and follower lists on Twitter,” says Aaron Wise, Associate Product Manager, on the Google blog. “For example, if you follow CNN and the New York Times on Twitter, and most people who follow CNN and the New York Times also tend to follow TIME, we'll suggest TIME as a ‘Tweep you might like.’”
Unlike previous autobots which automatically make a Twitter user follow anyone who follows them, Google’s new service analyses public social graph information to provide an intelligent list of recommendations and then presents these for the user to pick and choose who they wish to follow for themselves.
@Anywhere
Follow Finder makes use of Twitter’s new @Anywhere feature, a comprehensive set of frameworks which allow access to Twitter on any website through the inclusion of a line of Javascript. @Anywhere essentially allows people to tweet from anywhere without having to log into their Twitter home page. Follow Finder thus allows Twitter users to follow any amount of new profiles without ever having to directly access the microblogging site itself.
The announcement comes on the back of more news from Google and Twitter, namely the unveiling of a new Google search function for exploring Twitter’s public archive. The feature displays the usual real-time tweets related to the entered search term but also offers a time chart for access to tweets about the topic from any chosen time.
Posted by Carli Harris
