Official Twitter blog:
Rather than continue to make changes to the QuickBar as it exists, we removed the bar from the update appearing in the App Store today. We believe there are still significant benefits to increasing awareness of what’s happening outside the home timeline. Evidence of the incredibly high usage metrics for the QuickBar support this. For now, we’re going back to the drawing board to explore the best possible experience for in-app notification and discovery.
I’ve been percolating on a full post about this, but briefly, I don’t get why Twitter wants to push users into engaging with toots from outside their own timeline. They must be able to see just as we do that the vast majority of what’s trending on Twitter is utter garbage.
My theory is that they’re all too aware that it’s garbage, and they want to try to get more quality trending topics by getting more users engaged with them. If my theory is right, I doubt that their approach is going to work.
Another thought is that it’s a way to try to encourage casual Twitter users to follow more people and become more engaged with the service. If this one is correct, Twitter had better be careful about not pushing their power users away in the process of trying to engage the casual ones. Personally, I switched from the official Twitter app for iPhone to the very capable TweetList Pro (iTunes link), and I have no intentions of going back, DickBar or not.
Please note: I've moved my active blogging over to a new site, called Jason Clarke - Infinite Bass Line. I will leave this site up indefinitely, but if you're interested in my latest posts please consider visiting the new site.