Recorded using Screen Jelly.

Twitter is already overwhelming for some users. Add lists and groups on top of that and you’ll find even more confusion.  Tweetdeck makes those both easier.

In the video above, I walk through adding a user to a group and a list with just a few mouse clicks and without leaving Tweetdeck.

Seesmic sent the insiders and email today announcing the addition of Twitter Lists to the Seesmic client. The image above is an example of how the lists would be selected.  There are a few other screen shots and some explanations on the Seesmic Help Desk.

Seesmic is the first to add Lists to their client. Loic and his team continue to shine both in making a solid Twitter client but in keeping it cutting edge.

This might have me pitting Tweetdeck against Seesmic once again.

What’s your client? Are you using Lists? Will this be a game changer?

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• Seesmic Desktop Adds Support for Twitter Lists (mashable.com)

Twitter gives us a new toy today, the List Widget. Shown above is the first widget I’ve put together. If you scroll down on the blog you’ll see it in action.

List widgets let you select the user first, then you can select from the user’s public lists. Customize the list widget appearance by choosing colors, size and even title and caption. The widget size can be auto-adjusting or a set size. Color choices allow you to select the hex code or eyeball it using your mouse.

A National Novel Writing Month widget is my example. I built a list, still growing of course, of Twitter users doing nanowrimo. The list is by no means near 500 yet, but it’s enough that there should be a fair amount of tweets coming in. I chose to have it poll, and display only 30 tweets. Those settings are adjustable as well.

Twitter included the option to copy and paste the HTML as well as a Blogger specific option.  No Facebook or MySpace option was available; you can however use the HTML for MySpace.

I agree with TechCrunch, these will be your chance to curate your lists.

What will you do with the Lists Widget?

Seth Godin rocks the blog again with Opt in and opt out. He’s talking of course about how opt in or out should trend in favor of the consumer, be it their safety, well being or finances.  Seth is focused of course on examples like your 401 K, opt in. Why right? Or business choices that are often opt out, but would be better as opt ins.

Let’s look at an Internet example along Twitter lists is going to be a fun feature, but right now it’s not opt anything. If you’re added to a list, or add someone to a list, that’s just the way it is. This will be a problem.

Lists exploded onto the scene and people are frantically working to make their own. I’m already on 53 lists and it’s growing fast. There is no management screen. Listees not only can’t remove themselves, they can’t see at a glance which lists they are on.

No opt-in, no opt-out and no way to easily manage; Lists are going to experience back lash if these options don’t show soon.

Where do you stand? Should lists be opt-in, opt-out, and perhaps even opt-in/out at the list level?

Please take time to click through and read Seth Godin’s inspiring post.

My friend Liz wrote a great post on Twitter Lists 101 Etiquette.

Twitter brings out Lists. Lists is a way to organize Twitter users.  Users can be people you follow or people you don’t. Lists can be public or private. List names can be just about anything, as spaces become dashes, and the words just string together.

Lists makes Twitter users curators.  A list is like a gallery of people you’ve grouped together, either for private use, or to share in public, that have a common theme. Themes can be as simple as being in the list. Lists I’ve formed include the example above, social media gurus, but could be based on location, profession, or expertise.  Heck, you could make a list of ‘beautiful’ or ‘ugly’ people. Hopefully you don’t and if you do, you make it private.

The last example points out just one potential problem with lists, Negative Labeling. Negative Labeling occurs even involuntarily when you group folks as Hillbillies, Hoes, or whatever. You can’t assume no one will see that list.

Negative labeling can also cross the line into the illegal.  It’s borderline, in my opinion, to put together a list of politicians you believe are taking bribes. Likewise a list of neighbors you suspect of cheating on their wives might not be prudent.

Another problem with lists is Outing. Outing commonly refers to outing a secret, and most often is used to refer to gays. Your list of gay friends, the one you make public, may unintentionally out someone to family, friends, or coworkers. Yeah, no big deal to you maybe, but that might cost someone a relationship.

Outing can also be a problem with regard to location. At least a few of my contacts don’t publish a location on their Twitter profile because they are avoiding someone.  It could be an ex-boyfriend, an estranged family member or they could be very private.  Location outing them as being in a certain neighborhood may cause no end of problems.

There are many other ways of Outing or Negative Labeling someone besides the examples I’ve given. Likely folks are already constructing lists such as these.

My lists are focused on location, skills, and other groupings, such as my Master Mind group.  Locations I’ve included are St. Louis, Chicago, DC and more.  Ultimately I see myself adding lists of fellow game players, such as XBox Live folks, or lists of origami enthusiasts.

What will you do with your lists? Will you be responsible? Childish? Or do you even agree it makes a difference?

Whose in your list?

Twitter gets Lists and you become the curator

Twitter announced on their blog a new Lists feature.  Nick Kallen (@nk) explains what the idea is as

… to allow people to curate lists of Twitter accounts. For example, you could create a list of the funniest Twitter accounts of all time, athletes, local businesses, friends, or any compilation that makes sense.

Lists Features

• Created by the users
• Unique to the user creating it
• Others can subscribe to your List

Lists Why

Nick shared the reason behind Twitter Lists:

We started working on this feature because of the frequent requests we received from people who were looking for a better way to organize information on Twitter.

Lists already provided via tweepml.org for example have the same features.  Those services aren’t integrated via API to Twitter yet.  It appears Twitter will open it up shortly.

Twitter Lists for Everyone

• What will your lists be?
• Will you build short lists?
• Will you use a list to pimp out your friends or act as curator of the best of the best Twitter users?
• What will be your first list?
• What lists would you be interested in subscribing to?

Cheers to the Twitter team on a long awaited feature.

Todd aka @tojosan