We are all ‘me-centric’ and would like to know what others think about us, what they like about us and so on. Recognizing this need, micro-blogging site Twitter, introduced on Wednesday, two new tabs: “@(username)” and “Activity” which reflect what’s happening on Twitter in relation to us.
The Twitter official blog posts, “You can now see when someone favorites or retweets one of your Tweets. You can also learn which Tweets are most interesting and inspiring to the people you follow.”
The @(Username) tab replaces the Mentions tab and is more of a personal notifications dashboard. The tab will now include tweets directed at users via @replies, highlights favorite tweets and retweeted tweets and includes new follower notifications.
The Activity tab proves to be a source of discovery by highlighting the latest Favorites, Retweets and Follows from the people you follow on Twitter. This is supposed to help you find more people worth following, and highlights events that happen beyond the main feed.
On its official blog post, Twitter says, “These two new tabs make it easier to explore Twitter, connect with people and discover what is happening around the world.”
ITWeb comments, “ The new tabs are expected to significantly alter Twitter’s traditional linear, reverse chronological timeline and build on the service’s social graph.”
The new tabs will help users to reply, retweet and follow from within the new streams created, though the main stream will remain as it is. Both the new tabs are radical in function and design, especially when compared to the far less colorful Mentions and Retweets tabs.
Though as of now, the new features are accessible to a small group of users, within the end of the month the user base is expected to expand. Initially, Twitter will release the updates on its website only while it looks into how the new features can be incorporated in mobile applications.
Twitter is also launching a link-shortening service on 15 August. URLs longer than 20 characters will be squished into a “t.co” URL. Again, a select group of users will see this change from now. In addition, the micro-blogging service has rolled-out its own photo-uploading service to all users. Users will see a camera icon under the site’s tweet box, which lets them easily send images alongside their tweets.
It’s good news for users, but might prove to be rotten luck for services that have built a business from link shortening and photo-hosting — like the ultra-popular TwitPic.
TwitPic founder Noah Everett has launched a Twitter clone micro-blogging site – Heello, but that is a whole new story in itself.