The 3 Most "Muteable" Tweeters

The newest Twitter feature might be long overdue, but allows us a little peace and quiet!  In our Twitter feed, that is! 

Yesterday Twitter announced the addition of a "mute" button, allowing anyone to hide the tweets and retweets of someone they follow while still allowing that person to comment, retweet or favorite their own tweets. Mute button will roll out to all users in the next few weeks. 

So, when will you need this?  Here's three of the most muteable moments, when the new feature will surely help you out!

1) The spoiler alert: If you aren't caught up on your fave reality show, by all means, mute your friends or the bloggers who follow who chat about the show!! That way you won't have spoilers waiting for you in your news feed, and you can catch up with the show's happenings at your own leisure!

2)  The respectful follow: Those you mute can't tell that you have muted them.  So you can follow that co-worker or business partner that you know wants you to follow them, but you really have no interest in reading their tweets.  After all, it's the nice thing to do!

3) The limited mute:  Maybe you don't want to mute someone forever, but you can mute and unmute as needed!  Let's say your bestie is going to a concert you aren't really excited about or your coworker is over tweeting their outlandish political opinions during election time. Just mute them for a few weeks until the time passes and unmute when you think it's safe!  No more clogging of your feed!

Now if we could only get a "mute" button for real life!!

Has your Twitter profile received the "mute" button rollout yet?  Have you muted anyone?

Death By Twitter: PayPal Edition

The editions of "Death By Twitter" never cease to amaze me. In this edition, we highlight Rakesh "Rocky" Agrawal, a Silicon Valley big-wig and (former) PayPal executive.

His issues played out over the weekend and Monday as he basically insulted half his co-workers over Twitter. It seems from his "slurred typing" that alcohol was involved in these tweets, not to mention that he was at Jazz Fest in New Orleans!

With the lines between our personal lives and our work lives becoming ever more blurred, it has almost become run-of-the-mill to see these Twitter Fails come back to bite workers out of their jobs!

But they do always have twists and turns! As usual, most of the offending tweets have been removed from Agrawal's Twitter page (@rakeshlobster), but he continues to mention the debacle and his tweets since then have played out like a weird cryptic play that just keeps going downhill. First, there is the issue that he claims he quit while PayPal claims they fired him. Here is the tweet describing that:

"Oh. I quit pay a tonight because of self at son and aortic and ah our and hill e a s th"

Yeah, those typos are not my doing! That is literally what the tweet says. Like I mentioned, the man was having some fun at Jazz Fest. But the minute that happens is when he should put away the phone!! Things have drawn out to some quite serious claims like:

"Friends are worrying about me committing suicide. My colleagues have deserted me. Friends are flying in from across country."

I hope he is okay. But I also hope that we can get past this junior-high mentality of venting to our Twitter feeds and keep the site for more value-adding information! Still, kudos to PayPal for their brief tweet, at least referencing the issue and the company's stance on it: Rakesh Agrawal is no longer with the company. Treat everyone with respect. No excuses. PayPal has zero tolerance.

This leads me to think about Twitter and if I've ever posted something I wish I hadn't. Nothing is coming to mind, but I bet it happens to many. Have you ever wanted to take back a tweet??

Do we really need #AmazonCart?

• Peanut Butter + Chocolate
• Wine + Cheese
• Coffee + Baileys

Usually when two of my favorite things come together, I love the output even more.

That's why I was a bit perplexed by my reaction to the news this morning that equates to "Amazon + Twitter".

Yes, there is a new feature on Twitter, after its latest partnership with Amazon.  This is called Amazon Cart, or in Twitter language, #AmazonCart. Basically, you can reply to any tweet with the hashtag and any item that the tweet was promoting will automatically be added to your Amazon cart.  

At first, I guess it sounds cool.  But watching the video teaser for the concept left me feeling confused.

Highlight line from the video: "No more switching apps, typing passwords or trying to remember items you saw on Twitter."

Okay, cutesy voiceover on the well edited pitch video.  Here's the thing.  None of those are real issues for me.  Is this partnership solving an actual problem?  I mean, I switch apps all day, every day.  All my passwords are saved in my phone already.  And, honestly, I never really see items for sale on Twitter.  Am I missing something?  Are people using Twitter to sell products a lot?  It seems like for most, Twitter is a way to share information.  Not the digital marketplace that this partnership would support.

A poll on Mashable is almost split down the middle as to whether people will use this or not, but the majority ends up leaning toward "No way".  

And I agree, at least for now.  Could this Amazon/Twitter partnership be foreshadowing the future of Twitter.  We know the company has been under pressure to find a profitable business model, so maybe monetization will come from this Amazon partnership?

Have you ever purchased something after seeing it on Twitter?  Will you use the new #AmazonCart feature?