tweets

Twitter unveils new ad tools for better keyword matching

Twitter said today that it has launched new tools that give advertisers better ways to match promoted tweets to search terms.

In a blog post this afternoon, Twitter said that advertisers can now choose to buy promoted tweets against exact keyword matches, phrase matches, or basic keyword matches. This should allow them to place their promoted tweets against a much wider selection of search terms, if they choose to do so.

At the same time, the microblogging service is now allowing advertisers to restrict their promoted tweets from showing up in searches for specific keywords. "For instance, if you … Read more

Blessed are they who follow as the pope starts tweeting

Offering a blessing to his many followers, the pope's first tweet quickly traveled far and wide through the Twittersphere.

In the first few hours, the tweet picked up more than 38,000 retweets and was tagged as a favorite by nearly 13,000 people.

The first tweet from the head of the Roman Catholic church:

Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter. Thank you for your generous response. I bless all of you from my heart.

… Read more

Just in time for Festivus, @SeinfeldToday feed debuts

The hit sitcom "Seinfeld" might have gone off the air long before some of the technology we enjoy today was invented, but that hasn't stopped one person from taking to Twitter and guessing at what the modern-day "Seinfeld" would look like.

On Sunday, BuzzFeed sports editor Jack Moore opened a Twitter account, called @SeinfeldToday, where he shares storylines that could have been produced if the show was airing today. The tweets center on scenarios in which Jerry, George, Kramer, or Elaine interact with today's technologies.

"Jerry joins Twitter only to find that a … Read more

Tweeting gets harder: Chalk up two more lost characters

Twitter said today that it will implement a change in February that will extend the number of characters used in its automatic t.co link shortener by two.

Such a move may seem insignificant to the average Twitter user, but it does mean that there will be two fewer characters available under the 140-character limit in a tweet.

Twitter had no comment on the rationale behind the switch, but on its blog for developers, it simply spelled out the plans. "We're going to be extending the maximum length of t.co wrapped links from 20 to 22 characters … Read more

Watch as birds tweet on Twitter

We've seen a variety of creatures use Twitter, including flies and politicians, but check out this footage of real birds tweeting.

Lativan artist Voldemars Dudums created a viral marketing campaign for IR magazine based around the concept phrase "Everyone has a right to be heard."

With that philosophy in mind, Dudums decided to give birds a voice -- on the Internet. The artist took a keyboard and replaced the keys with pieces of unsalted fat, then connected the calorie-filled input device to a computer set up on an outdoor post in Sarnate, Lativa. … Read more

Google reactivates Speak2Tweet for Syrian Internet cutoff

Google and Twitter have restarted their Speak2Tweet service to let people disseminate voice messages over Twitter as a way to sidestep Syria's Internet blackout.

The Speak2Tweet service got its start during Egypt's Internet blackout in February 2011 but has been largely dormant since then. Late yesterday, Google announced on Google+ that it's brought the service back online:

In the last day, Internet access has been completely cut off in Syria. Unfortunately we are hearing reports that mobile phones and landlines aren't working properly either. But those who might be lucky enough to have a voice connection … Read more

'Tailored tweets' make their debut on iOS, Android apps

Twitter has tweaked its iOS and Android apps to show tweets tailored just for you, much the way its Web site has done since September.

A tap on the Discover page in the apps now displays a few select stories at the top, all considered relevant to you but not ones that you're necessarily already following. Tapping on the "View all stories" link brings up even more tweets that Twitter believes will interest you.

Each story offers a brief description, photo, and link, so you can quickly browse through the list and just tap on the ones … Read more

Twitter finally adds ability to e-mail tweets

Twitter is finally adding the ability to e-mail tweets directly from the Twitter stream, a feature that's already well-established in third-party Twitter apps.

The new sharing feature is rolling out to all users in the coming weeks, Twitter announced in a blog post today.

To e-mail a tweet to someone, go to the details of the tweet and click on the "More" icon next to the reply, retweet and favorite buttons. A little box will pop up to let you add a message and your recipient's e-mail. Then hit send. (This eliminates having to cut and … Read more

TweetDeck tweaked to handle 'high-velocity' tweets

If you happened to have set up a TweetDeck column to filter tweets with the "#Debate" hashtag during any of the recent presidential or vice-presidential debates, you may well have had the same experience I did: the application crashing under the weight of thousands and thousands of posts per second.

With Twitter becoming a bigger and bigger part of mainstream culture, there are an increasing number of big events that generate huge numbers of tweets, and today the microblogging company announced it is attempting to address the dynamic of TweetDeck buckling when those events generate incredible amounts of … Read more