• NASCAR puts you in the driver’s seat

    Friday, May 18, 2012

    NASCAR drivers have covered a lot of ground this year — and they’ve done it on Twitter. While @JimmieJohnson was 41,000 feet in the air, he hosted a live chat with fans. When the top Sprint Cup racers took a trip to the White House, they documented every step of their journey. During the Daytona 500, @keselowski found himself stopped on the track during a fire, and shared the view from the driver’s seat. And when you watch @KaseyKahne make his way around the track, you’ll see a hashtag on the back of his car.

    It’s clear that Twitter and NASCAR are a great match, and we’re working with NASCAR to bring fans even closer to the track.

    On June 10, while the drivers are racing in the Pocono 400, you’ll be able to get closer to the action as it unfolds on the track with a special experience around the #NASCAR hashtag. During the race, we'll curate accounts from the NASCAR universe and surface the best Tweets and photos from the drivers, their families, commentators, celebrities and other fans when you search #NASCAR on Twitter.com.


    We’ll have more to share about our relationship with NASCAR in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, this weekend you can follow the All-Star race and festivities via these accounts among others:

    @NASCAR
    @JimmieJohnson
    @keselowski
    @KyleBusch
    @KaseyKahne
    @JeffGordonWeb
    @KevinHarvick

    Cheering along with fellow fans during the biggest sporting events used to require being there in person, or at least heading to the nearest sports bar. Now, Twitter brings you closer to the roar of the crowd — and the roar of the engines.

    Posted by: Omid Ashtari, Twitter Sports & Entertainment Team (@omid)

    Posted by @ at 12:27 PM

  • Your ticket to the Billboard Music Awards

    What do you have in common with Usher, Carrie Underwood, and Maroon 5? You can experience the excitement of the Billboard Music Awards on Sunday night live on ABC 8pm ET / 7pm CT (8pm PT). Okay, we can’t promise that you’ll literally rub elbows with Alicia Keys, but following the show on Twitter can make you feel like you’re on the red carpet, at the award podium, and backstage with your favorite musicians.

    With our special cast of live-tweeters, you can experience the show through the eyes of the artists themselves and celebrity music fans who will be watching as well. Have you ever wondered what it’s like to take the stage to perform in front of millions of viewers? You can find out by following @NellyFurtado, @AliciaKeys, and @CarlyRaeJepsen, all of whom will be tweeting from inside the awards throughout the evening -- along with other hit acts like @RedFoo and @FarEastMovement.

    Not every musician in the world is at the Awards, but just about all of them might be watching it! Watch along with artists like @nadiaali, @preciousweapons, @tranquilmammoth, and @brokenanchor1. And finally, a big night for music also brings out the stars from other areas of entertainment. Also watching and tweeting along will be actors like @juliannehough and @TheRealMikeEpps, fashion guru @NinaGarcia, author Sloane Crosley (@askanyone) and comedian @TracyMcMillan. So make sure you take a look at our list on the night of the Awards.

    But before the big night even begins, check out our Billboard Music Awards list and follow all your favorite artists and the night’s hottest acts. During the show, you can follow the #BBMA hashtag to see these tweets and plenty more from musicians and fans around the world, and include it with your own Tweets to be a part of the conversation.

    With Modern Family stars Julie Bowen (@itsJulieBowen) and Ty Burrell hosting, the night promises to be full of fun. Here’s a sneak peek of the antics that await -- shared on Twitter, of course:

    Posted by Grace Chu Lee, TV Partnerships Team (@gracelee)

    Posted by @ at 11:04 AM

  • #OnlyOnTwitter: How photos make connections

    Thursday, May 17, 2012

    Communities are stitched together by numerous kinds of ties. In person there’s the smile, handshake, a shared laugh. From afar there’s the letter, email, a phone call. Twitter has a noteworthy power to bring you closer to a community instantaneously, and this week’s collection of #OnlyOnTwitter moments illustrates how this can be done with photographs.

    Whether it’s Broadway actors sharing an intermission break despite being in different shows, or photos from far away that pierce the mystique to show real, human people. Or (my favorite), if on your band’s tour you suddenly stumble upon the Most Awesome Story to Tell Your Friends — with Twitter, you tell it in real time.

    Saturday Intermission Pictures
    The Broadway community is a tight-knit crew. But on Saturday afternoons, when they're all scattered across different theaters, how do they stay close? Intermission pictures!

    Journalist Jacob Weisberg takes you to China
    On a trip to China, journalist Jacob Weisberg has been tweeting out photos and observations. This is a great format for feature reporters. Tweeting on the ground doesn't just have to be limited to breaking news. Jacob’s Tweets also offer an immediate and fascinating picture at life behind the Great Firewall.

    Indie Band Picks up a Hitchhiking John Waters
    John Waters was making his way across Ohio with his thumb and indie band Here We Go Magic picked him up. He rode in their van, and they reported the details of the incident on Twitter. (via DCist)


    Posted by Andrew Fitzgerald, Manager, Editorial Programming (@magicandrew)

    Posted by @ at 2:20 PM

  • New tailored suggestions for you to follow on Twitter

    Every day, hundreds of thousands of people sign up for Twitter to get closer to the things they care about — friends, businesses, celebrities, news and information from all over. If you’ve used Twitter for awhile, you know it can take some effort to find and follow the accounts that really reflect your interests. If you’re signing up for Twitter for the first time, we want that process to be easy and fast.

    Currently, when new users come to Twitter, we show them all almost the same suggestions for what or who to follow. That isn’t ideal. Since you have individual interests, you should get individual suggestions. After all, even though millions of people love Justin Bieber, FC Barcelona or Kim Kardashian, not everyone using Twitter may want to follow them. A football fan in Italy who loves to travel may want to follow @chiellini, @walksofItaly and @nytimestravel. An aspiring chef who loves to laugh can follow @epicurious, @seriousrecipes and @SteveCarell. And a mom whose son is traveling in Australia can feel connected to him and keep up with the latest news where he is by following @smh.

    To make it easier and faster for everyone to get started on Twitter, we’re beginning some experiments with tailored suggestions in a number of countries around the world. The first experiment will show new users a list of accounts that we recommend you follow, alongside a timeline filled with Tweets from those accounts. If you’re part of the experiment, you’ll see a Twitter experience that’s relevant to you right when you sign up. (Of course, you can always choose to not follow the suggested accounts that don’t interest you.)

    New users may see a list of tailored suggestions (left) and a timeline with Tweets from those accounts (right) as they sign up for an account.

    New users may see a list of tailored suggestions (left) and a timeline with Tweets from those accounts (right) as they sign up for an account.

    If you’re a current user, you may see tailored suggestions in Who to follow so you can constantly find interesting and relevant accounts that are new to you. In both cases, we hope it’s effortless for the Italian football-and-travel fan to follow @chiellini, @walksofItaly and @nytimestravel. To see which accounts we’d recommend for you, visit our preview page.

    Current users may see tailored suggestions in “Who to follow”.

    These tailored suggestions are based on accounts followed by other Twitter users and visits to websites in the Twitter ecosystem. We receive visit information when sites have integrated Twitter buttons or widgets, similar to what many other web companies — including LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube — do when they’re integrated into websites. By recognizing which accounts are frequently followed by people who visit popular sites, we can recommend those accounts to others who have visited those sites within the last ten days.

    As always, we are committed to providing you with simple and meaningful choices about the information we collect to improve your Twitter experience. For those who don’t want to tailor Twitter, we offer ways to turn off this collection. As the Federal Trade Commission’s CTO, Ed Felten, mentioned earlier today, we support Do Not Track (DNT), which is reflected in our privacy policy as one of the ways you can indicate your preference. If you have DNT enabled in your browser settings, we will not collect the information that enables this feature, so you won’t see any tailored suggestions. We hope that our support of DNT highlights its importance as a privacy tool for consumers and creates even more interest and wider adoption across the web.

    Additionally, new users will see an option to “Tailor Twitter based on my recent website visits” along with a link to “Learn more” when they create an account on Twitter.com. Current users will see a new “Personalization” section in account settings, with the same option to tailor Twitter. Of course, you can disable these options at any time, which will stop the collection of information for the feature and remove any tailored suggestions we have for you. You can even choose to turn off tailored suggestions from the preview page (which shows some suggestions we’d make for you).

    Every day, experienced Twitter users are brought closer to the things they care about in unique, profound ways. Today’s experiment in providing tailored suggestions lets novice users go from zero to pro faster and more easily than ever before. So even if you’re not a football-loving Italian who wants to travel the world, we hope this experiment immediately makes Twitter yours, and you can start getting closer to the things you care about with just a few clicks or taps.

    - Othman Laraki, Director, Growth and International (@othman)

    Posted by @ at 12:32 PM

  • The best of Twitter in your inbox

    Monday, May 14, 2012

    Starting today, you can discover the best of Twitter in a weekly email digest delivered to your inbox. This summary features the most relevant Tweets and stories shared by the people you’re connected to on Twitter.

    Stories feature a design similar to the recently updated Discover tab, emphasizing who shared each story beneath summaries to help you decide which ones matter most to you. Click any headline to finish reading the story, add your take by tweeting directly from the email, and see related Tweets from the people you follow.


    This new email digest also features the most engaging Tweets seen by the people you follow, even if you don’t follow those who wrote them. You can see who from your network retweeted or favorited these Tweets and click “View details” to retweet, favorite, reply or view the conversation around them.

    We’re rolling out this new email out to everyone over the next few weeks, so keep checking your inbox for new messages from Twitter. Like other Twitter email notifications, you can manage your preferences for this new digest in your Notification Settings.

    -Othman Laraki, Director, Growth and International (@othman)

    Posted by @ at 11:40 AM

  • Making every day Mother's Day

    Sunday, May 13, 2012

    Officially, Mother’s Day is celebrated on the second Sunday of May in the U.S. Of course, all year long, Twitter is filled with love and appreciation (and, of course, a little humor) for our moms. Here are some of our favorite moments of mom shared on Twitter the other 364 days of the year.

    Even though her comedy is often inspired by her family life, Mindy Kaling shared a sincere perspective on her relationship with her mom:

    Justin Bieber tweeted about the gift he’ll be giving his mom, and when his fans can get it too:

    Creator and star of HBO’s “Girls,” Lena Dunham lets us in on the rapport she and her mom share:

    Twitter isn’t just a place to come to talk about your mom: it’s also a place to come to talk to your mom. Families use Twitter to keep in touch, and share their affection.

    When actor Neil Patrick Harris posted a picture of his new twins, a very proud mother and grandmother quickly replied:


    After publishing her first book, Katherine Schwarzenegger shared her appreciation for the support from her mom, Maria Shriver, perhaps not coincidentally a public figure and best-selling author:

    What’s the secret to center-fielder Matt Kemp’s great start with the Dodgers this year? Maybe it’s the workout encouragement he and his mom share with each other:

    Today, share your own mom memories and moments on Twitter. But flowers are still a good idea too.

    Posted by @twitter

    Posted by @ at 1:03 AM

  • #OnlyOnTwitter: Announcements and surprises

    Friday, May 11, 2012

    We have a couple of moments to share with you this week of things that happened #OnlyOnTwitter. Two of our stories this week are about announcements. In one, Twitter was the platform of choice for hundreds of thousands of people to express their views on President Obama’s decision to support gay marriage. In another, Twitter was the creative canvas upon which The Atlantic drew a graphic. And then, just for fun, did you know that Salman Rushdie follows Molly Ringwald? He does.

    On Wednesday, President Obama expressed his support for gay marriage during a taped television interview. He quickly shared the news on Twitter, driving the conversation to its highest levels:

    Elected officials from both sides of the aisle also turned to Twitter to voice their opinions about Obama’s announcement:

    While our @gov team tweeted their data about the gay marriage conversation via an embedded image, The Atlantic’s new business site “Quartz” turned their Tweets into infographics about cellphone usage:

    Finally, it’s always fascinating to see how Twitter can bring people together. This week, a writer in New York casually noted that author @SalmanRushdie is following actress @MollyRingwald -- and was in for a bit of a surprise when they both responded:



    Posted by Andrew Fitzgerald, Manager, Editorial Programming (@magicandrew)

    Posted by @ at 12:42 PM

  • A new standard for the mobile web

    Monday, May 07, 2012

    Today we’re updating Twitter for mobile web (mobile.twitter.com) in an effort to give every person on the planet a consistent Twitter experience. People who access Twitter from feature phones, low-bandwidth networks or older browsers can now enjoy the new version of Twitter we introduced in December.


    In this updated version of mobile.twitter.com, you can see all the Tweets from the accounts you follow in the Home tab and check your @mentions in the Connect tab. You can see what’s trending in the Discover tab, and access your direct messages and Tweets in the Me tab.

    Like Twitter for iPhone and Twitter for Android, mobile.twitter.com is fast, like a native mobile app; it uses one-third less bandwidth than the previous iteration. We’re rolling out this new mobile web experience starting today, and will continue to make Twitter the most accessible way to connect with the world, even with the weakest signals and the simplest devices.

    - Satya Patel, VP of Product (@satyap)

    Posted by @ at 11:12 AM

  • #OnlyOnTwitter: Our collective past

    Friday, May 04, 2012

    We talk a lot about how Twitter is an amazing real-time platform. The news of the hour, delivered to you within seconds. But while Twitter is always bringing us closer to the present, sometimes our Tweets are a way of looking back to the past. This week’s #OnlyOnTwitter is about looking backwards. We’ve collected musicians’ memories of MCA. We also have a short Twitter essay remembering NFL linebacker Junior Seau. And we have a project developed by NBC LA to live-tweet the Los Angeles riots from 20 years later. All examples of Twitter’s power to make you a part of a global, collective history. And to bring you closer not just to the present, but to the past as well.

    Today we were heartbroken to see the news that Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys passed away. The news was shared via Tweets, passed around the world by fans whose lives had been touched by his work. And shortly thereafter came the memories— Tweets about listening to the Beastie Boys, Tweets about meeting “MCA”, Tweets about the impact his music had on all of music that followed. A flow of Tweets in which we were all sharing what this man meant to us as individuals, collectively.

    I think this is something important about Twitter. On Twitter our individual memories become a collective history that is more powerful, more meaningful and more instructive than ever before.

    RIP MCA
    Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys passed away this Friday. Across Twitter, musicians celebrated his work and remembered his impact on their lives and careers.

    Remembering Junior Seau
    After the suicide of Chargers linebacker Junior Seau, NFL player Eric Olsen remembered him on Twitter.

    Re-living the Los Angeles riots
    Twenty years ago LA erupted in a firestorm of riots after the Rodney King verdict. This year, NBC LA set up an account to tweet out updates from twenty years ago, exactly how and when they happened. These are excerpts from the first night of rioting.

    White House Correspondents Dinner highlights
    Every year the press and the President hobnob with celebrities and comedians for the a night of dinner, drinks and laughs. On Twitter, they call it #nerdprom. If you didn't manage to get on the guest list, you could still catch the jokes on Twitter:

    SF Ballet's #AskADancer
    Hours before the curtain raised for their performance of "Don Quixote", the San Francisco Ballet took fan questions for the show's star dancer.

    #PandaAI titillates nation of panda fans
    The National Zoo live-tweeted a scientific procedure that just happened to be artificially inseminating a giant panda named Mei. It was fascinating from a scientific perspective and also attracted no small amount of snark.

    Kanye and Bieber tweet their way to collaboration
    Two years ago Kanye West asked Justin Bieber to collaborate via Twitter. Now, as Kenny Hamilton reports, the collaboration is happening.

    Louis C.K. is a fan of Girls
    We have to imagine that when you're Lena Dunham, creator of the new HBO hit Girls, it takes a lot to make your day. Like when a comedy hero tweets his admiration to you.

    --Andrew Fitzgerald, Manager, Editorial Programming (@magicandrew)

    #RIPMCA

    Posted by @ at 1:50 PM

  • Innovate through experimentation

    In order to offer you the simplest and most engaging Twitter experience, we frequently test hundreds of variations of new features and designs with small groups of users. We test everything from subtle tweaks in the language of our sign-up pages and removing the search box from our homepage to big shifts in navigation elements. These experiments help us understand what experiences people like best or use most often. When an experiment ends, we study the results and roll out the most successful variation to everyone as soon as we can.

    After recent experimentation, we introduced a slight redesign to every Tweet that flows through your timeline on Twitter.com. A Tweet may be our basic unit of communication, but it also contains a universe: each one has an identity with a username, real name and avatar; a 140-character message that includes text as well as metadata like time and language; some context (replies, favorites and retweets of that Tweet), and perhaps media (photos, videos or links).

    Now, when you hover over the newly-redesigned Tweet, you'll always see options to reply, favorite or retweet in the lower-left corner against a grey background.


    If the Tweet contains media, you’ll also see specific options like “View photo” or “View video”; otherwise, you’ll see the option to “Expand”. You can expand any Tweet in your timeline to see inline context like favorites or retweets from other people, or additional Tweets from that same conversation. You can also click on any Tweet’s timestamp or “Details” to see that Tweet’s permalink, the unique web page for that Tweet.

    We made these changes because this iteration showed a significant increase in engagement, the highest of all the implementations during our experiment. We hope you like this change, which we think makes all of the possible ways to interact with a Tweet more clear. Even more, we hope you don’t mind our ongoing experiments. We’re always curious to find new ways to delight you, and to improve your Twitter experience.

    - Othman Laraki, Director (@othman)

    Posted by @ at 12:13 PM