This week, a number of Twitter users reported a strange phenomenon. The alarm bell icon on the notifications tab displayed a number for favorites, follows, and retweets when there was nothing new to report.

"I get excited then nothing. Bums me out every time," Gawker's Taylor Berman explained, adding, "It's haunting me." Twitter users who experienced this #ParanormalTwactivity dubbed the phantom scourge "ghost notifications."

It's possible this is a byproduct of Twitter's big push to please disappointed Wall Street investors and get users to spend more time with the service. We've reached out to Twitter, but issue appears to be fixed. Expect more notification angst in the coming weeks when Twitter puts on its Gmail mask and starts showing pop-up chats for your direct messages.

To contact the author of this post, please email nitasha@gawker.com.

[Image via Twitter/Syddie]