Twitter Gets a Makeover
Following in the footsteps of Facebook, Google and other companies that have made recent design changes, Twitter is rolling out a new look over the next several weeks.
According to Twitter CEO Evan Williams during a press event, the move aims to give users the opportunity to get "more out of Twitter in a lot less time."
The site's homepage will now show a split screen. On the left side of a user’s homepage, one will find @mentions, retweets, searches and lists above their timeline to create a single, streamlined view.
On the right side, Twitter members can see who’s following them, favorites and Trending Topics. Twitter is also embracing partnerships with a variety of media content sites – such as Etsy, Flickr, TwitPic, USTREAM, Vimeo and YouTube – to embed photos and videos directly to the site.
Meanwhile, when a tweet is clicked, the details pane shows additional information related to the author or subject. Depending on the Tweet’s content, one may see: @replies, other Tweets by that same user and a map of from where a geotagged Tweet was sent.
Other changes include clicking a @username , which will now allow members to see a mini profile without navigating from the page. This will provide users with quick access to account information, including bio and recent Tweets.
As Twitter rolls out a preview of the new initiatives over the next several weeks, users will have the flexibility to switch back and forth between the versions to get used to the changes.
In time, however, all users will have to use the updated version of Twitter, the company said.
