Twitter has implemented a cool new feature called “tracking“, which I am officially dubbing “twacking” because it sounds dirty. Basically on your phone or IM Twitter account you can send the message track <topic> and anytime any Twitter message appears on the network with that string in it, it gets sent to you. So I can set track metroid, and I can get a near real-time stream of people’s commentary having something to do with Metroid.

That’s a great idea. Stowe Boyd doesn’t like it because he thinks it’s supposed to be something else.

#Hashtags are declarative and imply a community. If I tag things with ‘#travels’ I would expect there to be a place where I can see the aggregated stream of all people’s posts with ‘#travels’ in it. But I don’t necessarily want to see every post with the word ‘travels’ in it, do I?

I think they need to rethink this a bit.

No, Stowe, the problem is that you are trying to make the new functionality fit a concept in your mind that isn’t the same idea. I like the idea of the #hashtags, I really do, and I think their implementation could create some really interesting, dynamically-evolving communities within the Twitter infrastructure. The #hashtags (which, like Stowe I always end up typing #hastags, I don’t know why) is a great concept for aggregating content. But this new feature isn’t an aggregating feature. It isn’t a community feature. This is a feature that allows someone to dynamically follow and discover conversations taking place within the Twitterverse. It’s purely a stream of information concept. You get hit with various, unrelated pieces of data that all pertain to a specific topic of your choosing, and you get to decide what voice to inevitably listen to. It’s a discovery mechanism. A simple utility for following topics as they flow through the endless stream of thought on the Twitter lines. And I happen to think it’s a great idea. So long as it works as intended (I haven’t had the chance to use it yet).

So, no, you wouldn’t just put track travels into this system. That makes no sense. That isn’t a topic. Don’t expect an aggregation system where there is none. Maybe you would enter track Europe or track Italy to see specific regional content as it passes through. But you aren’t going to collect this information. You’re going to set a specific topic, and watch the conversations pass, and look for something interesting.

Yes, I know it isn’t what you want, Stowe, but that doesn’t mean they need to rethink it. It means you need to realize that not every feature implemented in a given technology is going to be designed with you specifically in mind.