Earlier this month, Twitter client TweetDeck introduced Deck.ly, a new feature that enables users to send long messages to Twitter, bypassing the 140-character limit that is the signature of the micro-blogging service.
The response from users has been mixed, to say the least. Some users are glad to be able to tweet without restriction on length, but many are frowning upon the service’s violation of that sacred 140 character limit.
TweetDeck has just announced that in the few weeks that the feature has been available, that it has had over 1.35 million Deck.ly’s created. Despite some user protests, TweetDeck says that “The rationale for creating the Deck.ly service was primarily to fulfil our most user-requested feature and I take the high usage of the service as an indication we’re listening and responding well.”
TweetDeck admits that the new feature has polarized its userbase, and the latest update to its app does allow you to turn off the feature entirely. It also plans to change the layout of these posts, as well as give you more control over what is and what isn’t posted via Deck.ly.
The introduction of Deck.ly isn’t simply about helping users Tweet longer. TweetDeck, which was recently acquired by Ubermedia, also notes that part of the motivation behind the Deck.ly experiment was to find a way to generate revenue from “TweetDeck-specific ad-targeting on the deck.ly landing pages.” Indeed those 1,350,000 longer Deck.ly tweets have generated 1.5 million page views.
What are your thoughts on Deck.ly? Love it or hate it?
