Microblogging sensation Twitter, which is now signing up 370,000 new users daily on average, is redesigning its Web site to make it easier for its millions of users to navigate the service and discover new information.
The four-year-old company, which this month reported more than 145 million users, announced on Tuesday new improvements, such as embedded YouTube videos and other content, which is featured in a new two-pane layout.
Twitter users can now see pictures, videos, and other information from any particular micro-message quickly in the side-panel without having to navigate away from the timeline showing the ongoing stream of tweets from people they have signed on to follow.
PHOTO: AFP
The overhaul, which was code named “Phoenix” in keeping with Twitter engineers naming internal projects after birds, will be rolled out gradually in the US and gradually extended to all of the service’s 160 million users worldwide.
Twitter chief executive Evan Williams said the overhauled twitter.com features a completely new architecture, which is more responsive and user-friendly
“It makes it such a richer and faster experience,” Williams said at a press conference to announce the new site.
Twitter allows users to send 140-character text messages — tweets — to groups of followers. The company has quickly become one of the Web’s most popular social networking services, along with Facebook and LinkedIn.
Williams said more than 90 million tweets are sent per day on average. He hopes the new site will improve discovery, making twitter.com more of an information resource.
“You don’t need to tweet. Twitter can be great just as a way to get information,” Williams said.
Twitter is increasingly challenging established Web giants such as Yahoo Inc and Google Inc for consumers’ online time.
Forrester analyst Augie Ray said the Twitter redesign should help improve engagement with users.
“Twitter’s new Web functionality is a significant evolution that promises to attract more visits to Twitter.com, improve Twitterers’ interactions with content and each other, and ease adoption for Twitter newbies,” Ray said in a blog post.
The company is aiming to broaden Twitter’s appeal. It is also rolling out a new advertising system, as it aims to transform it huge user base into a sustainable, revenue-generating business.
Twitter runs a “Promoted Tweets” advertising service that allows companies and others to place tweets at the top of a page of search results.
Twitter in May banned outside advertising in the stream of messages at the microblogging service.
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