The Chaos Of Hashtags

Twitter doesn’t help you segment conversations by topic. Instead it relies on an algorithm that essentially operates like a tag cloud. The more a topic is mentioned the higher up it ranks in the “Trending Topics” section. To help the algorithm sniff out topics that are being discussed you can use a hashtag (aka the #) in your tweet. For example you could use #pepsi to denote your tweet is about Pepsi. In theory or someone responds to your tweet or is also talking about Pepsi they’d use the same hashtag.

That’s where the problem comes in. Hashtags are user determined. Twitter doesn’t even offer an autofill option to help you out. On Saturday I was watching the NFL draft and thought it would be fun to read what other tweeters had to say about the draft. Easy enough right? Instead of reading every single tweet out there, I could do one of the following:

Use the twitter search engine and search for NFL Draft. The only problem with that is that it won’t capture tweets that don’t mention NFL Draft, but are clearly talking about the draft. For example a tweet that says, “wow can’t believe the Jets took Sanchez” wouldn’t show up.
Assuming there’s a hashtag setup for the draft, I could simply search for it or click on it (if it’s trending high enough). That will pull all tweets that are referencing the draft.

So what happens when you get this situation?

Hmmm. Should I follow #nfldraft or NFL Draft? While not trending as high, I could also follow 2009 Draft. It’s also likely that the topics Marks Sanchez, Jets, and Aaron Curry are also about the draft. As you can see, I’ve got a lot of options to pick from. That’s not a good thing in this situation. It makes following the conversation challenging. I could follow both #nfldraft and NFL Draft, but then I’d need ANOTHER window, tab, or panel opened. That’s not very efficient and it’s a horrible user experience.

We need a better way to segment and tag conversations. Making it easier to follow conversations will make it easier to participate in conversations. And isn’t that with this is all supposed to be about?

http://TheNumerati.net/ Stephen Baker

Like you, I’m not a fan of the #hashcodes in Twitter. They tend to aggregate lots of garbage. But I do find Twitter search useful. But you have to start smaller than a generic nfldraft. If you’re a jets fan, you want to find out who they drafted. So you might type Jets, or maybe Jets draft. Sanchez pops up. Then, if you want more, you do Jets Sanchez. Yesterday I saw on MLB.com that Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels left in the 4th inning of a shutout. The fastest way to find out what had happened to him was to searchtwitter for Hamels. It worked. (sprained ankle)
http://TheNumerati.net Stephen Baker

Like you, I’m not a fan of the #hashcodes in Twitter. They tend to aggregate lots of garbage. But I do find Twitter search useful. But you have to start smaller than a generic nfldraft. If you’re a jets fan, you want to find out who they drafted. So you might type Jets, or maybe Jets draft. Sanchez pops up. Then, if you want more, you do Jets Sanchez. Yesterday I saw on MLB.com that Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels left in the 4th inning of a shutout. The fastest way to find out what had happened to him was to searchtwitter for Hamels. It worked. (sprained ankle)