All of a Twitter
Twitter has undergone a relatively drastic makeover to cope with the multimedia demands of its users.
The site has been re-engineered to be faster and show videos and photos in a second ‘pane' for a radical new look, as the site acknowledged in a blog post: "We've learned something since starting Twitter-life doesn't always fit into 140 characters or less."
Twitter addicts will be relieved to know the familiar timeline will remain, but beneath each Tweet there will be some info, context and possibly even embedded media which will all appear in a second ‘rich details pane' that slides out on the right when clicked on, effectively splitting the screen in two.
As well as embedded media, the pane is designed to include additional information related to the Tweet's author or subject as well as any replies or where a geotagged Tweet was sent from, for example.
The company's blog said the new design will add "more impact to individual Tweets while still maintaining the simplicity of the timeline," and so far seems to have been well received by people who have given the new service a go.
Twitter recently launched an iPad app, letting users move information around without needing to open windows or click buttons and it seems that the app's focus of keeping users on their main Twitter page has transferred to its web site too.
Twitter has joined with a whole host of companies to make viewing embedded photos and videos directly within the site easier. Its partnerships include: DailyBooth, DeviantART, Etsy, Flickr, Justin.TV, Kickstarter, Kiva, Photozou, Plixi, Twitgoo, TwitPic, TwitVid, USTREAM, Vimeo, yfrog, and YouTube.
The site has also introduced mini profiles so a user can click on a username to see a mini profile without having to navigate away from the page. The profiles also include quick access to account information including a biography and recent Tweets.
As a bonus, the annoying feature of having to click ‘more' to view extra Tweets in the timeline has disappeared with the introduction of infinite scroll.
