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Twitter Adds (and Removes) Retweets (Beta)

Some of you may have noticed a new Twitter Retweet logo marking your friends’ RT’s. Since users, the originators of the term, have been utilizing “RT” (followed by the author’s @name) almost as long as Twitter’s been around, and applications such as Tweetdeck and Seesmic implemented the feature long ago, what took Twitter so long in adding such a simple and necessary feature? This is something I would have expected to be released prior to Twitter Lists.

Let’s just assume they wanted to take their time, ensuring they didn’t leave anything out. From our initial impression, it looks as if they didn’t. The Twitter developers were sure to include a retweet counter and smartly prevented users from editing the original tweet. I’m sure you’re all eagerly awaiting your opportunity to give it try.

Update: looks like Twitter has pulled Retweets for now.

4 Comments

  1. Tanner Christensen

    The new retweet feature is actually pretty nice. While I would like to be able to customize the message a bit, maybe add some of my own thoughts to it… that’s not the purpose of retweets. Wonder why they pulled it though.

  2. Ladies Accessories

    Twitter users are a fickle bunch. Roll out a new feature and they’ll complain and complain–at least until they get used to the damn thing. Twitter co-founder Evan Williams has no doubt been flooded with “suggestions” since rolling out the Retweet function to a larger user base this week. Last night Williams responded with a long post on his personal blog titled, “Why Retweet Works the Way it Does.”

  3. Kim Ramsey

    Many people find retweet very useful in their online expansion and other businesses outside. It’s more than the benefit they can actually perceive, but still, not all take their advantage of this most popular means.

  4. home needs

    Twitter has been quick to respond to and embrace user-invented features in the past, with @replies and hashtags, so it’s nice to see that it is taking a similar route with retweets. Retweets can often be one of the most unclear aspects of Twitter for new users, so hopefully integrating it with the service can help to alleviate some of that initial confusion.