Requesting the timelines of each of the people you follow is slow process for the client, meaning that the client has to make 100s or even 1000s or requests.
Also, much of the data is thrown away because it's replies to people you don't follow or too old. It's hard for clients to reconstruct the timeline that way. Also, it would vastly increase the number of HTTP requests and data Twitter has to ship out.
Also, it's basically impossible to make a system like that real time because you have to check 1000 feeds to see if anything is new.
I used to write a multi-network client, basically the combined home timeline request is the only feasible method for a client to use.
Also, much of the data is thrown away because it's replies to people you don't follow or too old. It's hard for clients to reconstruct the timeline that way. Also, it would vastly increase the number of HTTP requests and data Twitter has to ship out.
Also, it's basically impossible to make a system like that real time because you have to check 1000 feeds to see if anything is new.
I used to write a multi-network client, basically the combined home timeline request is the only feasible method for a client to use.