Apple opens official Twitter account for iBookstore

This week, Apple launched a new Twitter account for the U.S. iBookstore, providing updates for followers regarding new releases, offers, and other information. The account was actually first opened back in June, but Apple has only begun sending tweets out today, Wednesday, September 14, 2011. 

The first tweet sent out from the account:

Welcome to the Apple #iBookstore on Twitter. Follow us to discover new releases, exclusive book offers, and more.

The second tweet sent from the iBookstore's Twitter account promotes Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus. 

Apple currently operates another Twitter account specifically for the App Store, providing similar information that this account gives. 

Twitter announces web analytics tool

Today, Twitter announced its web analytics tool, allowing website owners to see exactly how much traffic they are receiving from Twitter and how effective Twitter integration(s) is/are on their website. The company says that the tool was built with help from BackType, which Twitter acquired back in July of this year. 

The product provides three key benefits:

• Understand how much your website content is being shared across the Twitter network
• See the amount of traffic Twitter sends to your site
• Measure the effectiveness of your Tweet Button integration

Twitter Web Analytics will be rolled out to a small group of testers this week. All website owners will have access to the tool within the next few weeks. Twitter also stated that it plans to release an API for developers interested in integrating the tool. 

Twitter officially has 100 million active members

Twitter officially revealed via its blog today that it has surpassed 100 million active users on the micro-blogging service, a little over five years since launch. Twitter says that more than half of its users log in everyday and 40% of active members simply log in to check their tweets, not tweet themselves.

The company also stated that support for Hindi, Filipino, Malay and Simplified and Traditional Chinese will be available in the coming weeks, bringing the number of languages that Twitter supports to 17.

This is without a doubt a major milestone for Twitter and at the same time, it shows how many people are beginning to switch to social media, like Twitter, to get their daily dose of news around the globe.  

“Twitter, faster than earthquakes”

On August 23, a 5.8-magnitude earthquake rattled many parts of the east coast in the United States. As you'd expect, many affected by the quake immediately switched to social networks like Facebook and Twitter to get the word out to friends, family, and followers. 

That's exactly what Twitter shows in this video it posted to its YouTube channel. The video starts by telling the viewer that it took the earthquake 30 seconds to travel from Washington DC to New York. It then shows a man in New York City enjoying his drink and then checks his phones for new tweets. The man then picks up his coffee cup from the table and the earthquake hits, rattling and shaking everything around him.

While some will take this seriously and not like Twitter's attempt to humor people, some will see the real purpose of the video and that is, showing how people will tweet anything, and fast. 

Twitter announces “user galleries” – puts all of your uploaded images on one page

Via a support document published today, Twitter announced that it has begun rolling out a new feature called "user galleries," which takes all of the images you've uploaded to Twitter, yFrog, TwitPic, Instagram, etc. and places them on a single page for viewing on the service. 

User galleries on Twitter aggregate the images you've uploaded in your Tweets into an organized page where you can view all of your most recent images.

There are some technical restrictions on the service, however:

• Only the 100 most recent images will appear (pictures display in chronological order)
• Videos are not included in this feature - only images
• If the tweet with an image was sent before January 1, 2010, it will not appear on your gallery

Information on how to access user galleries:

• User galleries can be found on an individual users' Profile page.
• Clicking on View All will open the user gallery in your current window.
• There are two different options for viewing the galleries that can be changed in the upper right-hand corner of the gallery once it's opened:
  • The grid view will show you thumbnails of all images we're able to display.
  • The detail view will show you the most recent image, complete with the body of the Tweet displayed below it and thumbnails for other images above it.

Users also have the ability to remove an image from their gallery by deleting the tweet that contains the photo.

Twitter confirms new phishing scam through messages

Twitter has confirmed via its official account that some users may be receiving messages on the micro-blogging service that appear to contain pictures of yourself. However, clicking on those links will lead you to a phishing website. Twitter specifically states for users to not enter any login information on those websites. 

The company also gave further information on how to keep your Twitter account safe: http://blog.twitter.com/2011/07/keeping-your-account-safe.html.

Have you been affected by this? Be sure to let us know in the comments below.

Twitter rolls out new Activity Stream features

Today, Twitter announced two new features that it has begun rolling out to users today. The first is an Activity Steam and the second is an @[your username] tab on the homepage. The features are designed to make viewing information on Twitter easier for you.  

Users of Twitter.com will notice a new "Activity" tab where the latest Favorites, Retweets, and Follows appear of people you follow on Twitter. The second thing users will notice is a new @[your username] tab where you can view your tweets that are favorited, retweets, and @mentions.

Do you think that these features will make life easier for you on Twitter? 

Official Twitter photo sharing feature rolls out to everyone

Twitter confirmed yesterday that it has rolled out its official photo sharing feature, which was first unveiled in June, to every user on the micro-blogging service. The feature allows users to upload pictures to include in tweets directly from Twitter.com, rather than using a third-party service like yfrog or Twitpic. 

To use the feature, click on the new camera icon underneath the "What's Happening" box on Twitter.com and upload an image. That tweet will then contain a URL to the image, beginning with pic.twitter.com, as well as a thumbnail. Twitter says that the image must be under 3 MB to successfully upload and will be scaled to fit in the timeline on the site. 

The service is powered by Photobucket, a website that allows users to upload pictures. Apple's iOS 5, which is currently in testing with developers, has already been using the official Twitter photo uploading service for a couple of months now.  

More information is available here: https://support.twitter.com/articles/20156423. 

Twitter begins rolling out HTML5-compliant design for iPad

Twitter announced via one of its accounts that it has begun rolling out a HTML5 version of Twitter.com for iPad users. The refresh is not only valid in the latest HTML standard, but updates the design of the website to match the somewhat recently released touchscreen version.

Twitter says that the new design will be rolling out to iPads "over the next week or so," meaning if you don't see it just yet, don't freak out. We've included some screenshots below.

You like? 

“Old Twitter” users will be switched to “New Twitter” later this week

Earlier this evening, Twitter tweeted out via its official account that any users still using the "Old Twitter" will be automatically updated to the "New Twitter" - which isn't really "new" anymore - later this week. Nearly a year ago, Twitter launched a completely new design on its website, which took certain elements from iOS on the iPad.

Shortly after launch, Twitter said that it would offer users the ability to use the old design for a few weeks. We're not sure what happened, but Twitter is still offering the old design today. Back in June, Twitter began warning users still on the old design of the website that an upgrade will be occurring shortly. 

Are you going to miss the "Old Twitter?" Do you like it more than the current design? 

Expect Promoted Tweets to appear in your timeline in the coming weeks

We first reported that Twitter was planning on placing Promoted Tweets in users' timelines last month. Today, Twitter officially announced via its blog that it will be bringing the advertisement-based tweets to timelines in the coming weeks.

"These Promoted Tweets will scroll through the timeline like any other Tweet, and like regular Tweets, they will appear in your timeline just once. Promoted Tweets can also be easily dismissed from your timeline with a single click," the company stated. Twitter says that it wants to make sure that tweets from organizations you follow are available directly to you. 

We’ll be rolling out and testing this new offering over the next several weeks with a select group of partners, including Best Western, Dell, Gatorade, Groupon, HBO,JetBlue, LivingSocial, Microsoft Xbox, Red Bull, Sephora, Starbucks, Summit Entertainment’s “50/50”, TNT and Virgin America among others — with more to come soon. During this phase, you may also see Promoted Tweets in your timeline from non-profit organizations you follow, including charity: water, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Room to Read, The American Red Cross and Water.org.

It's very important to note that you're only going to see ads from companies you follow already, not just any Twitter user who runs ads. The company hopes that this will make the ads actually useful and not just there to annoy you.

Previously, Twitter had Promoted Tweets in searches on the micro-blogging service, as well as Promoted Trending Topics that appear in the sidebar. 

FIFA Women’s World Cup sets new tweets per second record

Twitter revealed via its official account shortly after the end of the final game of the FIFA Women's World Cup (WWC) yesterday that a new tweets per second record has been set. According to Twitter, the final game in the WWC resulted in 7,196 new tweets per second, while the Paraguay vs. Brazil game came in second at 7,166 tweets per second. 

The previous record had been set with the death of Osama Bin Laden being announced earlier this year. 

Twitter turns five years old today

Twitter, the world's most popular micro-blogging service, celebrates its fifth birthday today, July 15, 2011. Five years ago today when Twitter opened to the public, it was actually called "Twttr," but we all know by now that changed. Twitter also tweeted out via its official account a link to the blog post by Biz Stone, a co-founder of Twitter, first announcing the service. 

What's changed in five years? Well, first off, Twitter revealed that it saw more than 600,000 signups just yesterday. It took the company more than 16 months to reach the initial 600,000 signups. Next, there were 224 tweets sent out on July 15, 2006. Today, Twitter users send the same amount of tweets in less than a tenth of a second. 

Happy birthday, Twitter!

Twitter has over one million apps, releases new developer site

Twitter announced Monday they have crossed over the one million registered applications mark with more than 750,000 developers around the globe. The company also released an all new developer website using Drupal to allow change in the community. 

It wasn't a year ago when Twitter had just 150,000 register apps, now Twitter has a growth rate of a new application every 1.5 seconds. The company says the spike in growth is helping fuel the ecosystem of the network in areas such as analytics, curation and publishing tools.

Twitter also announced that since December 2010, more than $500 million has been invested in the Twitter ecosystem. Even more impressive is over $1 billion has been paid out in acquisitions. 

An all new version of Twitter's developer site was also released Monday with a number of changes including better communication channels improved reference and documentation all using Drupal so that the the site can evolve to serve the needs of the community. 

The new developer portal also includes a discussions section for developers to talk with each other, a dedicated blog so announcements are easily found and an enhanced search feature the to get better results. The new app manager in the portal also has a new design that provides more information about developer's apps.

Google+ accounted for 35% of tweeted news links last week

There's no doubt that Google+ is one of the biggest topics on the Internet right now. It was first announced by Google late last month and since then, it seems like almost everyone on the Internet who is technology-inclined is trying to get their hands on an invite to the social network. 

According to Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, Google+ accounted for 35% of tweeted news links last week, followed by global warming stories and hackers and al Qaeda. What is interesting to note, however, is that Facebook didn't even make the list last week with its at-the-time impending announcement of Skype video calling integration. 

Seems like people are excited for Google+, but will the excitement continue? 

LinkedIn surpasses MySpace to become second largest social network in U.S.; Twitter sees record-breaking June

According to data from analytics company comScore, LinkedIn, a social network that launched in 2003 and is focused around a person's work experience, has officially surpassed MySpace to become the second largest social network in the United States. 

LinkedIn, which filed for an IPO back in May of this year, reached an all-time high of 33.9 million unique visitors in June, putting it past MySpace's 33.5 million. On a side note, MySpace saw 34.9 million unique visitors in May, meaning things aren't looking good for the aging social network that was just acquired from News Corp. for $35 million. 

In addition, Twitter saw a record-breaking 30.6 million unique visitors in the U.S. last month, up from 27 million in May. Facebook seems to have responded to this by also having a record-breaking month in terms of traffic, seeing 160.8 million unique visitors in June (up from the 157.2 million in May). Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg officially revealed that his social network, which is just seven (7) years old, has reached 750 million users. 

Finally, Tumblr saw 11.8 million unique visitors last month, up from the 10.7 million in May. 

Twitter testing feature to @reply someone directly from profile page

According to a report from Mashable, Twitter has begun testing a new feature that allows users to @reply, or "mention," another user directly from that person's profile page. The feature is similar to a wall on Facebook and would make it easier for users to mention another person on Twitter. The tweets are public and the feature is currently being tested with a select amount of Twitter users.

The micro-blogging service has been criticized about its @reply system because currently, if someone wants to mention another user, they either need to directly type in that person's Twitter username or reply to a tweet from that person. 

It's not clear when this might be released to all Twitter users. Are you looking forward to this feature?  

Twitter acquires BackType

BackType, an analytics company focused around tweets, announced via its blog today that it has been acquired by Twitter. BackType's team and technology will be making the trip over to Twitter's offices where their "focus will be developing tools for Twitter’s publisher partners."

Our team’s relocating to the Twitter office. We’re very excited to not only join an amazing company that’s changing the world, but to continue building products in pursuit of our shared vision with Twitter.

BackType developed a product called "BackTweets," which allows content publishers to see who is reading their tweets and how "tweets convert to web traffic." As a result of the deal, BackTweets will be offered for free to current users and new user registrations will begin to slow down in the future. In addition, BackType services and API's will be discontinued. 

No further information about the deal was revealed at this time. 

Twitter now valued at $7 billion

The Wall Street Journal reports Tuesday that Twitter is raising more funds from private investors that would value the company as high as $7 billion. 

The valuation comes just seven months after Twitter raised $200 million from other private investors that valued the internet messaging company at $3.7 billion. 

The report notes Twitter hopes to build an ad system that will eventually generate billions of dollars annually. In addition Twitter is currently on track to generate $150 million from ad revenue this year. 

Additionally, the paper claims that Twitter is in no hurry to file for an initial public offering. 

Google shuts down realtime search engine as contract with Twitter expires

As noted by Mashable, Google has shut down its realtime search engine, cleverly dubbed "Google Realtime Search," following its contract with Twitter expiring this past Saturday, July 2, 2011. Google's Realtime Search allows users to search for content as it happens and it included Twitter integration for tweets. 

However, today when attempting to access http://www.google.com/realtime, users will receive a 404 error page. In addition, the option to use realtime search has been removed from the sidebar on Google.com. 

According to the report, Google was forced to shut down Realtime Search because its contract with Twitter that allowed the search giant to have access to a full feed of all public tweets expired on July 2. The original agreement between Google and Twitter dates back to October 2009.

“While we will not have access to this special feed from Twitter, information on Twitter that’s publicly available to our crawlers will still be searchable and discoverable on Google,” the company said Monday. “Our vision is to have google.com/realtime include Google+ information along with other realtime data from a variety of sources.”

It's not yet clear whether Google is re-negotiating a contract with Twitter or if the search giant has elected to include Google+ posts instead.

Are you going to miss Google Realtime Search?