This may seem like a statement of the bleeding obvious, but we have a deeper meaning. Last year we noted the changes Facebook were making to their interface (timeline) despite fierce opposition from users. The changes were, of course, aimed at making things better for advertising.
So last week Twitter made changes to its accounts, also to make it more attractive to advertisers. Twitter has a block setting, which effectively disconnects you from people, both blocking their tweets and them from seeing your posts. And last week they changed this, allowing posts to still be seen which advertisers would be quite keen on. Unfortunately it also effectively disabled a tool which was introduced partially to stop cyber bullying. So there was a big outcry and …. Twitter reversed it.
Big step. As Facebook has shown, and we’ve seen similar from Apple and Google, these companies seem to a take a “we know best” view and the customer is not right. Twitter have admitted they were wrong. In the short term they risked looking stupid, and perhaps worried investors a little more about advertising revenue. But they have done what is best for their customers and that will matter more in the long run.