San Francisco — Popular microblogging site Twitter has recently refreshed the look of its website, but apparently seems to be grappling with technical glitches on Tuesday, disabling a new home page as well as a “Trends” feature and the site had to temporary switch to an old version.
Late on Tuesday night, a message on Twitter’s Web page flashed that provided updates on the service’s status said: “We have temporarily disabled #NewTwitter, and said that it was “going retro” by temporarily reverting back to the old Twitter interface that was used before the 2010 redesign. Our engineers are working on re-enabling it and we will update you shortly.”
Surprisingly, three hours later, the Twitter team sent out word that it had also disabled the “Trends” feature for all users. Twitter earlier said it was working to sort-out problems displaying timelines and “elevated error rates.”
The new elements of the homepage, however, reflect Twitter’s ongoing quest to convince new users to stick around, and in the past, Twitter has tried to do that by showing off examples of what it actually does, and other users to keep finding more reasons to stick around.
Below is the new home page that some users are seeing:
And the old one:
And, for old time’s sake, the one before that:
And the one before that:
Just earlier this week Twitter also updated its search feature, in a manner that follows this theme. Instead of displaying sample Tweets, or trending topics, the new page simply invites users to “Follow your interests: Instant updates from your friends, industry experts, favorite celebrities, and what is happening around the world,” followed by a search box.
Now, “When you search for a topic, you can now discover accounts that are relevant to tha
“You can search for general topics, like funny or sports, or be more specific — try Manchester United, NASCAR or Formula One.”
The microblogging website, which empowers users to send short, 140-character messages to groups of “followers,” has more than 200 million registered accounts and has become a popular communications service with businesses, celebrities and protesters in the Middle East.
The post was updated in the early hours of Wednesday morning, stating: “We have turned #NewTwitter back on!”
Nevertheless, Tuesday’s disruptions indicates that some people were using the version of the Twitter site that preceded a redesign unveiled in September. Other Twitter users were unable to log on at all, and were greeted with a page informing them that “something is technically wrong” and promising to have things “back to normal soon.”
A Twitter spokeswoman said the company had no details to provide beyond the statements on its special technical status Web page. t particular subject,” Twitter spokeswoman Carolyn Penner said in a blog post.
“You can search for general topics, like funny or sports, or be more specific — try Manchester United, NASCAR or Formula One.”
The microblogging website, which empowers users to send short, 140-character messages to groups of “followers,” has more than 200 million registered accounts and has become a popular communications service with businesses, celebrities and protesters in the Middle East.
The post was updated in the early hours of Wednesday morning, stating: “We have turned #NewTwitter back on!”
Nevertheless, Tuesday’s disruptions indicates that some people were using the version of the Twitter site that preceded a redesign unveiled in September. Other Twitter users were unable to log on at all, and were greeted with a page informing them that “something is technically wrong” and promising to have things “back to normal soon.”
A Twitter spokeswoman said the company had no details to provide beyond the statements on its special technical status Web page.