• Bell Mobility and Twitter—No Extra Fees

    Thursday, February 26, 2009

    Last week we activated full SMS service for Canadian Twitter-ers who are also customers of Bell Mobility. Twitter and Bell have agreed that Bell customers on the company's text messaging bundles will be able to receive unlimited incoming Twitter SMS messages at no extra charge. If you haven't already, you can activate your phone to Twitter over SMS.
  • For Whom The Bell Texts

    Friday, February 20, 2009

    Today we're super excited to be activating full, two-way SMS service for Canadian Twitter-ers who are also customers of Kevin Thau is working hard to bring full Twitter SMS to your country. In fact, he's in Europe right now trying to replicate our success with Bell Mobility. Stay tuned for more support all over the globe as we make progress. And fear not Australia—you're on the list too!
  • Testing A More Integrated Search Experience

    Wednesday, February 18, 2009

    Twitter Search has been growing ever more popular despite the fact that it lives on a subdomain of our site. Today, we've placed Search and Trends into the signed-in home pages of a limited set of accounts to get a better sense of how it works for folks before we release the feature completely into the wild. Most people will not see this test, just a small, random subset.

    Searching over Twitter messages is like a filter for what is happening right now—it's an interesting look into the real-time thoughts of people and organizations around the world. Whether you're curious about something specific or you just want to browse the trending topics, we've found that Twitter Search adds a new layer of relevance.

    Only accounts that choose to be publicly accessible are included in Twitter Search. However, more than 90% of the folks who use Twitter have decided to make their accounts public. It seems that people, companies, and organizations are discovering there is value in openness. We're looking forward to a full launch once a bunch of us have kicked the tires a bit.
  • Opportunity Knocks

    Friday, February 13, 2009

    Benchmark and Todd Chaffee from find out what's happening—right now. With these new partnerships and this new funding, we are in a position to move more confidently toward our vision for a robust and successful Twitter, Inc.
  • Clickjacking Blocked

    Thursday, February 12, 2009

    Some folks have noticed links from accounts they follow prefaced by the words, "Don't click" which of course people want to click right away. The links take you to a web site employing technique called clickjacking. This technique seeks to trick web users and can take action on your behalf while you perform seemingly unrelated tasks.

    As wikipedia states, clickjacking is "A vulnerability across a variety of browsers and platforms, a clickjacking takes the form of embedded code or script that can execute without the user's knowledge, such as clicking on a button that appears to perform another function." In this case that "other function" was posting a link to your Twitter account so that more people could be tricked and the cycle could perpetuate.

    Thankfully the harm was restricted to constant reposting of the link, but we take malicious attacks on Twitter users very seriously and this morning we submitted an update which blocks this clickjacking technique.
  • Give Water, Join Us Tomorrow!

    Wednesday, February 11, 2009

    Charity:Water, a non profit organization bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations by funding sustainable clean water solutions in areas of greatest need.

    The Twitter team will be heading over to The Paradise Lounge for the donate on the Charity:Water site.
  • Nothing To Report Just Yet

    Tuesday, February 10, 2009

    There was a sudden burst of news early this week surrounding some ideas we've shared publicly for quite some time. We've been thinking out loud for more than a year about the growing use of Twitter by companies, brands, and other commercial organizations. It's great that both individuals and organizations are finding value in Twitter and there may be ways we can enrich the experience. In fact, we hope to begin iterating on revenue products this year.

    However, it's important to note that whatever we come up with, Twitter will remain free to use by everyone—individuals, companies, celebrities, etc. What we're thinking about is adding value in places where we are already seeing traction, not imposing fees on existing services. We are still very early in the idea stage and we don't have anything to share just yet despite a recent surge in speculation. When we do, we'll be sure to let you know.
  • A Lesson in Nothingness?

    Monday, February 09, 2009

    Twitter Rules. Should His Holiness decide to take up Twittering for real, we'll be sure to Follow.