Besides just hoping that Twitter runs consistently without experiencing outages all the time, there are a few things I would love to see the micro-blogging service add that would make the Twitter even more useful than it already is. Even though it is several months till Christmas, I give you my Twitter wish list.

1. A Mute Function

Sometimes, not always, certain people I follow on Twitter get a bit noisy. This can happen if they are live-blogging a conference seminar via Twitter, arguing with another Twitter user, ranting about something and the like. It would be nice to have a mute function that would allow me to temporarily “silence” them so their updates do not show up in my “friends timeline.”

Currently the only way to really implement this is to “unfollow” a person, which I have done in the past. A mute button that can be turned on and off would be a much nicer feature to turn down the noise that can occur from time to time.

2. Improved “Delete” Function for Direct Messages

I am not a pack rat by any means. I am therefore always throwing out stuff I don’t need or use. Twitter direct messages is one of those areas I like to keep uncluttered. Currently you can only delete one message at a time by clicking on a little garbage can icon. You then have to confirm that you do indeed want to delete that message. This is very time consuming!

What would be better is to add check boxes next to each direct message as well as a “delete all” option so I can have improved control over keeping my DM box clean.

3. Groups

I’d love to see Twitter add the ability to set up and join groups. For example, I love Disney stuff, so it would be great to be able to create a Disney group where discussion could take place around Disney related topics. Or even when we attend search conferences like SMX or SBM Unleashed, it would be nice to have a group associated with the conference so those in attendance could talk amongst each other rather than pay attention to speakers making presentations (did I just say that).

4. Sort Friends/Followers Alphabetically

I don’t know how friends and followers are currently sorted but it sure isn’t alphabetically. I’d like to see a function where I can sort A-Z and Z-A or if nothing else, make A-Z sorting the default. It would make it easier to find a specific somebody when you want to direct message them or view their profile.

5. Reduce URLs Prior To Updating

Okay, this might be a tricky one… maybe impossible, but it would be nice to see long URLs that exceed the 140 character limit per post be reduced prior to posting. Currently I have to go to TinyUrl to shorten URLs so they will fit within the character limitations of Twitter. If it could be done automatically, that would be sweet.

Don’t worry, Twitter. As the Billy Joel song says, “I love you just the way you are.” However, I’m sure you are always looking for ways to improve yourselves (at least I hope you are). These suggestions are for your consideration.

P.S. If adding any of these features further burdens your capacity issues, then please by all means, work on increasing capacity first! 😉

Anything I missed? If you are a regular Twitter user, what features that I have not already mentioned would you like to see added?