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Twitter expands 'mute' and 'report' features to combat abuse
Twitter has such a bad troll problem that it may be the reason why Disney ultimately decided not to buy the social network. Now, even though it's probably too late to change Disney's mind, the company has enhanced a couple of features to help users get other abusive users off their backs. Over the coming days, you'll be able to mute not just people, but also keywords and phrases, usernames, emojis and hashtags to make sure nothing cruel or insulting slips into your notifications. If people keep tagging you in a conversation you want no part of, you'll be able to mute that thread to stop receiving notices, as well.
Hey Twitter, hiding usernames won't help you
Once Twitter announced that links, pictures and usernames would no longer count towards a tweet's 140-characters, it also started testing changes to how @ reply messages look. This week my account was included in that test, and as a longtime user, I don't think this change is a good one. As you can see from the screenshots, it puts more emphasis on accounts "real" names. that would be fine, except I've spent ~8 years getting used to the usernames of people I follow and commonly tweet to. Now, I can recognize some of those names faster than the person's "real" one, because this is Twitter, not Facebook.
Ken Bone may have violated FTC rules with Uber tweet (updated)
Ken Bone's overnight fame looks to have already soured. As VICE reports, Bone's tweet for the UBERSelect service in St. Louis, where last Sunday's presidential debate was held, did not include any indication that the message was sponsored. This is a big no-no with the Federal Trade Commission -- just ask Kim Kardashian.
Twitter's 'First View' ads put videos at the top of your feed
For Twitter, a lot can happen in a week. After it was reported to be readying a change that would shift the placement of tweets, the company has pushed forward with a new feature that changes what you'll see in your feed. It's called "First View" and it allows brands to pay more to position a video ad at the top of every timeline.
Twitter trademark filing lays claim to the word 'subtweet'
It appears the practice of subtweeting has become so popular that Twitter wants to trademark the term. In a recent application, the 140-character social network filed for a trademark on the word "subtweet" (both as one word and two separate words) following Jack Dorsey's return to the CEO chair. The application was posted for opposition on November 19th, giving any other companies or individuals time to dispute Twitter's claim. If granted, the trademark will give the company the ability to approve (or deny) any commercial use of the word. Of course, Twitter will have to make use of it commercially to keep its grip, which is interesting because no one affiliated with social stream seems to have coined the term.[Image credit: Bloomberg via Getty Images]
Twitter tests emoji reactions for the times a heart won't do
Still bummed that tapping a heart is the only way to show your appreciation, sadness or any other reaction for a tweet? Well, that may change. Twitter user @_Ninji stumbled across emoji reactions in a jailbroken version of the social media app. Despite being included in the developer build, the feature still needs a lot of work, but it does allow users to employ the frown, party noisemaker and 100 emjois (just to name a few) to get their point across. The discovery comes right on the heels of Twitter swapping stars out for hearts when a tweet is favorited, much to the chagrin of most of the internet. Facebook recently added animated options for more appropriate reactions than a simple Like as well. Since the Twitter emojis appear to be a long way from finished, we'd surmise we'll hear more about the tiny pictures in tweets soon enough. Here's to hoping the taco and poop emoji make the cut. We've reached out to Twitter for more information, and we were sent the monkey with its hands over its mouth emoji.
Easily plug your last tweet into Yahoo email signatures
Yahoo has unveiled a new feature for its email app that allows users to include their most recent tweet as part of their outgoing signature. To enable it, go to Settings -> Accounts -> Primary Yahoo and select "Include your latest Tweet from Twitter". Users can also manually delete any included tweet if it's not appropriate. Or, more likely, accidentally include it on a Reply All to the entire company.
Prepare to be inundated with Happy Birthday tweets
Do you enjoy getting a truckload of birthday wishes on Facebook each year? Well, prepare for the same thing to happen via Twitter. The 140-character social network now allows you to add your birthday to your profile, letting the masses know the proper 24-hour period to ping you with a celebratory GIF. Adding that bit of info is optional, of course, and you'll be able to configure the settings so that it only appears for the folks who you really want to be informed. And yes, you can leave out the year so the internet won't know exactly how old you are. The new addition is said to be available "starting today," so if you're not seeing it now, you should be shortly. [Image credit: OLI SCARFF/AFP/Getty Images]
Twitter will start curating the best tweets about daily events
Twitter CEO Dick Costolo will officially leave the building next month, but one of his ambitious pet projects — codenamed "Project Lightning" — just might change the way people interact with Twitter even after he's gone. According to a report from BuzzFeed's Mat Honan, Lightning will highlight specific events or conversations happening that very moment with the help of editors who'll weave a sort of visual tapestry from textual tweets, photos and videos.
Tweet a pizza emoji and Domino's will send you a real one
Ordering your go-to Domino's pizza just got a little easier -- yes, even more so than using your XBox One or Pebble smartwatch. The restaurant chain announced Tuesday that its customers will soon be able to order their preferred pie with nary more than a tweet and an emoji. No, seriously. First you'll need to have an online Domino's Pizza Profile and designate an "Easy Order" pizza. Next, add your Twitter handle to your account and simply tweet #EasyOrder to @Dominos. Or, if that's too many keystrokes for you liking, simply insert the pizza emoji into your tweet instead. Either way, you'll soon get a direct message confirming the order and a piping-hot pizza shortly thereafter. You can give #EasyOrder a whirl today, though unfortunately the emoji method won't to be available until next Wednesday, May 20th.
Twitter taps Foursquare for location-based features
Twitter wants to know where you are. The social media company has tied up with Foursquare so your tweets can carry your precise location. Twitter was already picking up on your whereabouts, but its in-house tagging ability has been restricted to data points from GPS, wireless networks and cellular tower signals. The update allows Twitter to tap in to Foursquare's massive location database so you will be able to pinpoint your exact spot in a tweet.
Twitter lets you share public tweets in your direct messages
Well, that was fast. Twitter casually mentioned at its Analyst Day festivities last week that it'd soon give users the ability to share public Tweets in private conversations, and now a new update to its apps and web clients means you can do just that. Either a long-press on a Tweet or a quick pop into the 'More' menu in Twitter's mobile and desktop versions respectively will let you dump that micro-missive into a Direct Message conversation, where it'll pop up in a tiny card for lightspeed perusal. We can hardly contain our excitement either.
Twitter makes every public tweet searchable
Remember your first tweet? Neither do I, but it was probably something along the lines of "first tweet," or an equally terrible first impression. Twitter has been working on a way to let you sift through every 140-character message sent publicly over its social network, and now the full backlog of short messages is ready for your queries. To make this possible, the company had to scale its tools -- like the real-time index -- during a multi-year project, accommodating not only the existing library, but properly sorting the billions added each week. Of course, this is a gold mine for businesses, sports teams and others who want to see what audiences were discussing at any given time. "We built a search service that efficiently indexes roughly half a trillion documents and serves queries with an average latency of under 100ms," Twitter's Yi Zhuang explains in a blog post. The ability to hunt through the massive index is rolling out to users over the next few days. Inside mobile apps and on the web, the "All" tab of search results will display that full gamut of tweets.
You can now tweet money to friends, if you live in France
Starting tomorrow, any French resident with a bank account and Twitter handle will be able to transfer money simply by tweeting it. The new service, dubbed S-money, was launched last month by French mega-bank BPCE and Twitter. It differs from Twitter's Buy Now, which lets users to pay for goods at companies like Home Depot and Burberry using an embedded "Pay" button. Instead, S-money is aimed at person-to-person transactions, letting you send money to friends without needing their banking details. Details are scarce on exactly how it works, but a BPCE spokesman said it's "perfectly adapted to the Twitter experience." By the way, my own Twitter handle is @stevetdent. #kerching
Ryanair now lets you tweet it for real-time flight updates
When budget airline Ryanair finally launched its first Twitter account, many users wondered if they've finally have an official way to vent their frustrations via social media. Although the company does use @Ryanair to improve customer service, it only serves as a way to update followers, not to interact with them. However, following today's launch of @RyanairFlights, Ryanair has started to engage a little bit more, but only with customers who are interested in receiving real-time flight updates. The automated service asks you to follow the new account and then send it the flight number you want updates for (eg FR102). Ryanair then gets back to you with the status of that particular flight, providing scheduled departure and arrival times, and news of whether it landed early or not. Luckily, you don't have to endure that perky 'on time' jingle if it does.
Ukraine rallies the Twitter troops as Russia invades
Strange as it may seem, wars aren't just fought with bullets and bombs anymore. Tweets and shares can at times be equally potent, and that's probably why Ukraine mounted a social offensive yesterday after Russian troops began engaging with domestic forces in the border town of Novoazovsk. The country's Foreign Ministry implored Twitter users retweet its message and to use the hashtags #RussiaInvadedUkraine and #UkraineUnderAttack to spread the word of Russia's incursion. It looks like the plan's working, too. #RussiaInvadedUkraine is the more popular of the two hashtags, and according to Topsy, it's been deployed in over 400,000 tweets over the past 24 hours.
Twitter wants everyone to know how many people read their tweets
Publishers and verified users have been able to track view counts on organic tweets since last month, but Twitter is looking to make that data more widely accessible. Today, the microblogging social network revealed that this analytics feature is no longer limited to people or companies with a tiny blue check mark on their profile. The tweet activity dashboard is now also available to users who are active primarily in English, Japanese and Spanish, and have had an account for longer than two weeks. And don't worry, support for additional languages is coming -- Twitter let it be known that it is working to bring its tool to everyone sometime "soon." So, there it is, now you won't have to wonder if anyone's actually reading those thoughtful (and wonderful) tweets of yours.
Twitter restores accounts and tweets previously blocked in Pakistan
Back in May, Pakistani authorities requested the removal of multiple tweets and Twitter accounts that were, according to them, blasphemous or unethical. Now, Twitter has now restored said content. In the social network's words: "We have reexamined the requests and, in the absence of additional clarifying information from Pakistani authorities, have determined that restoration of the previously withheld content is warranted. The content is now available again in Pakistan." The reversal of the block might answer critics that argued that the social network's current policy gave too much power to the already powerful -- allowing censorship from agencies and agents even if their country hasn't afforded them the right to do so. We've added the rest of Twitter's explanation after the break.
Twitter puts tweets inside your tweets on iOS and Android
If you think retweeting's so 2013, then you may want to update your Twitter app now. As The Next Web notes, the latest version gives you the option to embed tweets in your tweets (credit Xzibit or Inception), so long as you're using either an iOS or an Android device. Take note, though, that embedding's a bit more troublesome than straight out retweeting. You'll have to copy the link to someone's tweet and then paste it into your Twitter app's text box (on a phone or a tablet, which means exerting double the effort). Also, you'll have to click and view each tweet individually to see the embedded boxes like in the image above -- they show up as ordinary links on the timeline, and your followers won't even see them as embeds on the web interface.
Crafting the perfect tweet is one-third talent, two-thirds science
Random and fickle as social networks may seem, the success of an individual Tweet or Facebook post can be hugely dependent on the way it's worded. Some sentences will work well, while others will quietly implode in a puff of indifference. However, researchers from Google and Cornell University now claim that they can predict this outcome using straightforward linguistic rules. The rules may not be especially practical when it comes to actually crafting a Tweet (the main tips are: make it sound like a news headline, follow "community norms," and add more detail where possible), but there does seem to be decent statistical evidence to back them up.
