Twitter Test Shows 'Nearby' Tweets - Full WSJ Story

I like this story for one specific reason. I'm a big fan of using Social Medias for business purposes, but not so much for personal as for me its too invasive. While I would not be interested in sharing my location for personal matters (ie: the fine cuisine I'm eating at a Cafe in Venice Italy) But I would share business events at the Nasdaq, NYSE, and on Wall St where I'm broadcasting and trading from daily...I imagine the MSM which is arguably one of the biggest users of Twitter wiil really be excited to use this feature. Merchants as well will be especially excited once its grasped. Long Twitter and Facebook...Tim


Twitter Test Shows 'Nearby' Tweets -- WSJ Blog
Dec 14 at 12:44

      (This story was published by The Wall Street Journal Online's Digits blog
at http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/)
      By Yoree Koh
      Twitter has an eye on your location -- and is testing ways to share it
with other nearby users.
      The short-messaging service appears to be testing a new timeline for its
mobile app, called "Nearby." It shows recent nearby tweets, whether you follow
the tweeter or not.
      The "Nearby" timeline has appeared occasionally in recent days on the
phones of users who allow Twitter to see and use their location.
      The apparent test could be part of an effort to prompt more users to share
their location. That would make the network more locally relevant, in the manner
of Foursquare. It also would allow Twitter to offer advertisers more precise
targeting capabilities.



      Twitter has allowed users to add their location to tweets since 2010. But
that feature is turned off by default and must be turned on by the user.
      The new experiment appears to try to solve the problem that the "discover"
tab and search function have struggled to do: organize the millions of tweets
into something digestible and locally relevant for each user.
      Brian Wieser, an analyst at the Pivotal Research group, applauded the
test. " Maybe they'll come across something that will be incrementally
interesting to some advertisers," he said.
      A Twitter spokeswoman declined to comment on the "Nearby" service, but
said Twitter experiments frequently as a way to provide a better user
experience.
      The upper half of the "Nearby" screen is a map where a blue dot pulses
over the user's current location. The bottom half shows a timeline of recent
nearby tweets, with icons on the map noting their locations. Clicking on an icon
pulls the corresponding tweet to the front of the screen.
      As you move around the map, more picture-linked tweets pop up in a manner
similar to the way shopping carts spring up when searching for grocery stores on
Google Maps. Seeing the tweets unfold in real time could allow users to
understand neighborhood events, such as why a bunch of fire trucks just flew by.
      Users can opt out of the location sharing function. On an iPhone, the
control is under the "Location Services" tab under the "Privacy" section of the
phone's "Settings."