Reading in the Western world is traditionally left-right, top-bottom. In case you have trouble with that concept, observe the image to the right. It works out pretty well… Books, newspapers, menus, pamphlets… so why mess with that? Well, because it's the Internet, that's why.
Take the typical blog (like this one you're reading right now, fascinating, right?), newer posts are usually above older posts. So if you wish to read chronologically, you must read bottom-top. But for the most part, that's not a big deal as you're still reading a large block of information.
Where this backwards way of reading really gets annoying are services like Twitter and Facebook (and now comment threads on Gaweker sites like Lifehacker). In this situation you're reading small snippets of information. If you're only concerned with what's happening right now, it's not that big a deal. But if you want to read chronologically to get a sense of the larger conversation, it's a down-right pain in the ass:
Reading an entire page like that is tiring. It's downright backwards. So I pose this simple question: why don't these services offer a chronological view? And even more, why don't third-party applications like Twitterrific offer a chronological view?
Am I in the minority on this or does it just make sense?
