It is entirely possible to follow somebody by not going to the twitter website by using the API. The catch is that it is an authenticated method, and so the UX for that is not so friendly if you want to keep it off of twitter's website. The other catch is that it is not one-click.
example: Have a link that says "follow me on twitter". If the link is clicked, an pop-up, or div w/ z-index of a billion, or, etc... appears and has a Username and Password text box and a button that says "Follow Me!". They enter their creds, click the button, boom... you've been followed. Removed the pop-up/div/whatever. It's done. Now, when OAuth rolls around and becomes the exclusive mechanism for interacting w/ the API, this becomes useless, and implementing a "Follow Me" OAuth app would (to me) seem to be more trouble than it's worth since the user would have to authenticate through twitter anyway. So... Is one-click possible? No. Is it possible to do off of twitter's site? Yes. Is it worth it? Maybe (my personal opinion is No). Would I find a twitter page that is just has "Follow @user" related text useful? No, but I could see TjL's point if you've already received a TwitReport and have already seen the info that would otherwise have been presented to you on their profile anyway. -Chad On Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 9:38 PM, TjL <luo...@gmail.com> wrote: > > On Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 5:49 PM, Nicole Simon <nee...@gmail.com> wrote: >> following on the other hand is at the core of twitter and >> comes right after tweeting - it is nothing where the user >> really has to think about "oh how do I do this" but rather >> leading to the part where they make their usual decision >> if or if not to follow somebody. > > You're assuming that the only way that anyone gets to Twitter is via Twitter. > > What if I want a link on my blog which says "Follow me on Twitter"? > > Click the link, see the text (read it if you need to), say "Yup, I > want to follow this person on Twitter". > > > What if you get a TwitReport ( http://tr.im/twitreport ) for a new > follower and think "Yeah, this is someone I'd like to follow? What > would you rather do, load their entire profile page just to click the > "Follow" link, or just load the part that you need? > > Now assume you're on your iPhone or Blackberry. Which would you rather > do? There's no 'Follow' mechanism for the mobile Twitter. > > BTW, a TwitReport gives you the block URL. But I can't give a follow URL. > > >>> I'd love to see something like: >>> >>> http://twitter.com/follow/confirm/NAME >>> >>> which would explain following and "notifications" (and give them a >>> chance to turn notifications on/off right there if they have a device >>> defined). >> >> in this case I would have to go to the real profil to make my decision >> and then click on follow - 3 steps instead of 2, there is not >> really an advantage. > > Only if your imagination is limited to the idea that no one ever comes > to Twitter except from Twitter. > > No one is suggesting taking away the follow link as it exists. But it > has limitations. > > TjL >
