Major League Baseball is now using Twitter in two of its online properties: MLB.tv, and MLB.com. Fans can chime in themselves, or view the 140-character insights of “insiders,” which are tweets from each team’s official Twitter account or fan blog.

Along with being able to post new messages directly from the box, users can get their tweets filtered into the stream using hash tags. These show up alongside the happenings of the game and serve as an alternate commentary to the streaming radio feeds. This is a really neat approach, since it does not require users to remain on MLB’s live game sites. Instead, it can tap the commentary of people who are watching or listening to it elsewhere.

For those who decide to stay in MLB’s Twitter box though, there are plenty of options to make it worth your while. The stream continuously updates, tapping into Twitter’s API to let you befriend any user whose comments you like, or retweet whatever they’ve said with quick button shortcuts.

One thing MLB really should do though is filter out any retweets sent from its site. If a message has already been posted by another user, you see it over and over again as others pick it up. This would cut down on some of the noise. It would also be really nice to get certain tweets color-coded by what team they were talking about, which would make the stream that much easier to parse.

(via Silicon Alley Insider)

The Twitter chat box lets you view commentary from other Twitter users, including official tweeters from each team.

(Credit: CNET)

Originally posted at Web Crawler