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Twitter is removing locked accounts from your follower count
Your Twitter follower count might soon shrink. The microblogging service announced today that it will begin purging locked accounts from your follower count starting this week. "Most people will see a change of four followers or fewer; others with larger follower counts will experience a more significant drop," according to a blog post. But this week won't mark the end of the changes, with Twitter saying that follower accounts might change on a regular basis as "part of [its] ongoing work to proactively identify and challenge problematic accounts."
Twitter will broadcast local TV news to avoid misinformation
In an effort to curb the spread of misinformation, Twitter will begin broadcasting local TV news alongside the timeline when tragedy strikes. The microblogging service tested the feature yesterday, streaming news coverage of the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Miami. As Buzzfeed News reports, once you click on the live videos on the timeline, you'll be taken to another timeline populated by tweets about whatever's happening on the news.
Twitter is the latest to fill your feed with auto-playing video ads
Your Twitter feed is going to get even busier thanks to the microblogging service unlocking auto-playing video ads for advertisers. Starting today Video Website Cards are available to every ad-buyer. In limited beta tests (like the one embedded below; videos don't seem to work with embeds), Twitter has found them pretty successful, with a 200 percent higher clickthrough rate compared to the leading standard. So yeah, expect to see an awful lot more of these coming soon. Just wait until #brands start combining these with 280-character tweets. Suddenly, paying for Tweetbot doesn't seem like a horrible idea.
Tumblr adds three useful ways to post from your mobile device
Tumblr keeps improving its mobile apps, adding to already useful features like photo filters, instant messaging, stickers and GIF posts to keep your interactions fresh and interesting. The microblogging service just announced three new ways to post from the mobile apps, including images in reblog posts, fun new text styles for text posts, and the ability to drag and drop paragraphs and images within blog posts.
Twitter's unifying its apps across iPhone and iPad
Everybody's getting ready for tomorrow's big Apple event and that even includes Twitter. While the media briefing is likely going to focus heavily on a new iPhone, the microblogging service is looking to improve its app on the iPad and bring it more in line with the experiences users currently have on Cupertino's handset. The update hopes to bring responsive design (how websites adapt their layouts to different screen sizes, automatically) to the forefront by focusing on a few key aspects: canvas, device, orientation, size class and typography. While some of those might seem a bit arcane and more for user interface designers than you or me, the long and short of it is Twitter's what it hopes are smart, instantaneous decisions to make using its app on different-sized iOS devices a comfortable experience.
Twitter profiles on Android look much better now
Twitter's mobile app has seen a fair bit of newness as of late, and its latest tweak brings the Android version's profile pages in line with iOS'. What's so different? Let's start at the top. Header images and avatar photos have gotten a bump in size for starters, and, what's more, the bio has its own bit of screen real-estate now instead of being a swipe to the left. Rather than only the three most recent tweets showing, now you can scroll through an infinite amount of a user's 140-character updates too -- same goes for photos and favorites.
Twitter has a new way to keep you up to date while you're AFK
It isn't quite a "filtered feed" (yet), but it's looking like Twitter's rolling out a new feature to keep you up to speed when you aren't constantly refreshing your timeline. It's dubbed "while you were away," and, as TechCrunch points out, it appears to be rolling out to a large chunk of the microblogging service's users. What it does is compiles top tweets since you last logged in (likely based on amount of favorites and retweets, although the methodology isn't quite clear), and places them at the top of your timeline on mobile. Along with those daily email summaries, it seems like another way to keep people in the loop if they aren't the most hardcore users. And possibly to the dismay of them, it makes the service a bit more like Facebook's non-chronological news feed. We'd love to hope this recap function won't pull in sponsored tweets from a certain bikini model shilling a mobile game, but that likely won't be the case.
Twitter's opening up your timeline data... for science!
There's a veritable wealth of data to be gleaned from the world's tweets, but apparently it's not so easy for researchers to get a hold of. To that end, Twitter has announced that it will start granting certain research institutions no-cost access to the globe's (public) 140-character musings as part of its Data Grants program. If you're thinking that this sounds a bit familiar, it's because Foursquare recently did something similar and even used the same company -- Gnip -- to do the legwork. This could possibly give scientists valuable insights about where diseases originated or even a snapshot of slang patterns and global events, for example. The deadline for the first wave of applicants is this March 15th should you want to be among the first to put Earth's tweets under the microscope.
Twitter is making searches easier with filters for news, videos and more
Searching Twitter for a video you saw last week isn't always the easiest thing in the world, but a new update for the microblogging platform might fix that. New search filters are available that'll allow you to separate your query by location, whether the tweet has a video or photo attached or if it's a newsy 140 characters. This seems more like a universal roll-out than a test, but, given Twitter's history, you may have to wait for a more controlled way of searching for time-travelers.
Tumblr search update makes it easier to find the perfect GIF
With over 154 million blogs on Tumblr, finding just what you're looking for can be a chore. Luckily, the company has made it easier by announcing a beefed up search function. The Yahoo-owned site can now process search requests with multiple hashtagged words or phrases, such as "#engadget #expand." Leaving the pound sign out produces more robust search results -- returning both officially tagged entries and ones that simply contain the query text. To make its explicit content filter more visible and less confusing, Tumblr moved it to the redesigned results page, which now also boasts a Filter menu that segregates posts by type. Finally, a scrollbar that displays relevant blogs joins these two features, which should make it easier to find new friends if yours left for greener pastures.
Twitter reportedly planning targeted ad network for apps and websites
Now that Twitter is almost a publicly traded company, it's under pressure to find meaningful new sources of revenue. That may include advertising outside of users' social streams, according to a new report from the Financial Times. Its sources claim that Twitter is developing an ad network for apps and websites that would target visitors based on what users tweet and who they follow. It wouldn't resemble Facebook's login-based advertising, however, as much of Twitter's data is public. The network would reportedly launch soon after the firm completes its recent acquisition of MoPub, a mobile ad exchange. Twitter isn't commenting on the rumor, but such a move is logical -- it would let the company improve its bottom line without intruding any further into our conversations.
Twitter experiments with trending TV box on some users' timelines
Twitter has already signaled its love of TV by negotiating deals for branded video, but it's not satisfied yet: the company has started limited testing of a timeline box for trending TV shows. The feature provides both the details of a given show as well as a list of associated Twitter accounts. Thankfully, the box isn't a permanent fixture; while it will appear on its own, users can close and scroll past the box to return to their personal feeds. The company isn't commenting on the test or the likelihood of a wider rollout, but the popularity of Twitter as a live TV companion suggests that the trending TV box could be here to stay.
Hell freezes over: Sina Weibo now lets you post to Facebook
For some strange reason, Sina Weibo's always required folks to log in to view some of its posts, but now there's more incentive for those who've yet to open a Weibo account. Announced yesterday, the website claims to be the first Chinese social networking platform to connect with Facebook -- the irony being the latter is still blocked in China, plus Tencent's WeChat already beat Weibo on this one. Anyhow, both new and existing overseas users (including those from Taiwan and Hong Kong) can now register their Facebook accounts on Weibo, thus letting them post Weibo messages to the former simultaneously. Understandably, it doesn't work the other way round, but this should still somewhat help Weibo expand its user base of over 530 million. As you can see in the above screenshots, this author took the new feature for a test drive and could only forward text-only Weibo posts to Facebook. That said, Sina's press release states that through Facebook's Graph API, Weibo users will eventually be able to also share images, videos, TV shows, music and mobile location to Zuckerberg World. For now, this Facebook integration is only available on the web client, but the Android and iOS clients will soon receive it as well. We've reached out to Sina to see what's up with the Windows Phone version, so stay tuned.
Twitter for Android update brings in-line replies, sharing through direct messages
Twitter fans on Android just got a pair of small features that could go a long way toward streamlining conversations. An update to the app now lets socialites reply directly from a tweet's detail page, skipping a minor but sometimes annoying step. The refresh also permits sharing tweets through direct messages -- you won't have to broadcast your intentions to the world. If time or privacy is of the essence, Twitter's Android upgrade is already live at the source link.
Twitter briefly showed which sites were embedding which tweets
It's been possible for Twitter fans to embed posts and whole timelines for some time, but authors almost wouldn't know it when they aren't told that the sharing takes place. Users may not be in the dark for much longer -- F-Secure's Mikko Hypponen noticed this weekend that Twitter was briefly listing the sites embedding a given tweet. We've asked Twitter for more details, but the quick disappearance of the feature suggests that the company was conducting field tests. If the addition becomes permanent, it would be consistent with Twitter's desire to track major events -- we'd know just which tweets get the web community buzzing.
App.net Passport for iOS finds third-party clients, allows condition-free sign-ups
Despite App.net's positioning as a Twitter alternative, it hasn't had either an app to call its own or a way to sign up without at least an invitation. The social network has just crossed both of those items off its list with its new App.net Passport for iOS, albeit through an unconventional path. Passport is a gateway app, not a client: it lets users manage their profiles, but it really exists to point users to third-party apps and people they'd want to follow. Don't write off Passport as a promo stunt, though. It also represents the first place where the curious can sign up without either an invitation or paying up front. CEO Dalton Caldwell warns that the wide-open registration is an experiment, not a guaranteed change in policy -- if it doesn't work out, the company may return to business as usual. Whether or not the strategy bears fruit, Passport should both serve as a fast track for newcomers and a launchpad for App.net development beyond iOS' borders.
Twitter gives API 1.0 a reprieve, lets it live until June 11th
Those who preferred Twitter's earlier, more liberal ways have regarded May 7th with a sense of dread, as that's when API 1.0 (and our chance at a truly competitive app ecosystem) was supposed to go dark. While the company isn't about to reverse course, it is giving the refuseniks a break by delaying the shutdown until June 11th. More time is necessary for blackout tests, Twitter says. We wouldn't lean too heavily on remaining API 1.0-era apps and services when that instability exists, but the extra month does allow for a gentler transition into API 1.1's brave new world. [Image credit: Coletivo Mambembe, Flickr]
Twitter will unveil something 'big' on Good Morning America tomorrow
Forget music halls -- Twitter thinks morning TV talk shows are where it's at for product announcements. It used The Today Show last year to unveil a profile page redesign, and we now know it will rely on Good Morning America this Thursday to unveil something... "big." But what does that cryptic clue mean? While logic would suggest Twitter Music given its semi-official status, we could also see TV in expanded tweets or something entirely unexpected. We'll keep our eyes (and possibly ears) open.
Twitter to drop TweetDeck for AIR, Android and iOS, will also pull Facebook integration
We hope you weren't overly attached to TweetDeck for Android and iOS on mobile, or AIR on the desktop. Twitter has revealed that it's sending those birds the way of the dodo: all three will be pulled from their relevant app stores in early May, and they should stop functioning altogether not long after that point. Facebook integration also won't hang around, the company says. The company argues that web-based versions of TweetDeck (and their native equivalents) will do the job on the desktop, and that expansion of the regular Twitter app should be enough to cover "most" smartphone and tablet users. However, it also acknowledges that there will be at least a few mobile users who'll have no official recourse for a more advanced experience, especially if they value Facebook. Good thing the company isn't limiting access to third-party alternatives... wait a minute.
Sina Weibo passes 500 million user mark, how's your site coming along?
Remember those halcyon days last November when Sina Weibo passed more than 400 million users? Well, a mere three months later, and the microblogging site can now boast that it's got 503 million compulsive over-sharers. To put that figure into perspective, were "Chinese Twitter" to be its own country, it would be the third most populous nation on Earth. While it should be celebrating such figures, there's a few signs of trouble on the horizon, as local rival Tencent's WeChat hit 300 million users last month -- not to mention some disgruntled former users inviting people to switch to Twitter.
