For those who thought Twitter (News - Alert) was getting to look a bit stale, there's some fresh, new material to work with as the company has rolled out a substantial new redesign to its user profiles menu that some are already comparing to Facebook (News - Alert) and Google+, a development that may prove welcome for Twitter users. With the redesign, meanwhile, comes a development that may suggest the social media stakes are heating up even further than previously noted.
The new redesign has been in testing phases since February, and with the redesign comes a host of new features that should resonate pretty nicely with the user base. Aesthetically, there are some pretty big changes, with a new customized cover photo slot complete with tweet count, numbers on followers and following, favorites, lists, and photo / video access—now its own category—located directly under the custom cover photo. Plus, those interested can display either “tweets” or “tweets and replies” for each user with tweets in the tweet stream now available for display in a mosaic view. The toolbar at the top of the page, which was formerly black, is now white, and more colors are available to users overall to select from in a bid to more customize a page.
Even the practice of tweeting itself has received something of an overhaul, with the ability to offer a “forum-style” tweet at the top of other tweets. A user's most popular tweets—as determined by total number of user interactions—will get a presentation in a larger text in a bid to draw further attention.
Those who don't have Twitter accounts as of yet, but sign up for one, will be able to get in on the changes immediately. Those who already have Twitter accounts, meanwhile, won't see the new features right away, but rather will be getting access to these changes later on.
Some might wonder what would drive these changes, this new look for Twitter that makes it less like Twitter and more like Facebook and Google (News - Alert)+. It may be a matter of Google starting to feel some of the impact of competition in the social media field, and making some adaptations accordingly. With more and more of social media going mobile, it could be that Twitter wanted a bit of a redesign to help keep the mobile crowd interested and in on the action. With so much competition in the field, it's also worthwhile to change things up every so often anyway so as to keep things fresh and keep users from getting bored, a development that wouldn't end well for Twitter.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi
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