• 200 million Tweets per day

  Thursday, June 30, 2011

  Halfway through 2011, users on Twitter are now sending 200 million Tweets per day. For context on the speed of Twitter’s growth, in January of 2009, users sent two million Tweets a day, and one year ago they posted 65 million a day.
  
  For perspective, every day, the world writes the equivalent of a 10 million-page book in Tweets or 8,163 copies of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Reading this much text would take more than 31 years and stacking this many copies of War and Peace would reach the height of about 1,470 feet, nearly the ground-to-roof height of Taiwan’s Taipei 101, the second tallest building in the world.
  
  
  A billion Tweets are sent every five days. What’s in them? Everything about every topic imaginable – whether it’s a unique bird’s-eye view of the Shuttle launch as seen from an airplane window or cheers of support for soccer teams in this year’s Champions League tournament. Using Twitter helped a homeless man reunite with his daughter, sent two Cincinnati Reds fans to spring training on a player’s dime, and even helped residents of a small city in Korea find fresh water after its supply was cut off.
  
  And, here are the top Trending Topics for the first half of 2011, divided into the two most popular categories:
  
  World events/News
  

  1. AH1N1 - Swine Flu
  2. Mubarak - former Egyptian President
  3. Easter - Christian holiday
  4. Cairo - capital of Egypt
  5. #prayforjapan - sentiment following the March earthquake and tsunami
  6. Chernobyl - site of nuclear disaster in 1986
  7. Libia/Libya - site of an ongoing civil war
  8. Fukushima - Japanese nuclear power plant
  9. William & Kate - Newly-named Duke and Duchess of Cambridge
  10. Gadafi - Libyan political leader

  
  Pop culture
  

  1. Rebecca Black - pop singer
  2. Femme Fatale - newly-released Britney Spears album
  3. Charlie Sheen - actor
  4. #tigerblood - hashtag popularized by Charlie Sheen
  5. Nate Dogg - rapper
  6. Anderson Silva - Brazilian mixed martial artist
  7. Tom & Jerry - famous cartoon
  8. Mumford & Sons - British rock band
  9. Bieber alert - referring to artist Justin Bieber
  10. Queen Gaga - referring to artist Lady Gaga

  Posted by @ at 1:03 PM

• Global pulse

  Wednesday, June 29, 2011

  During major events, people use Twitter to share news and thoughts with friends, family and followers around the world. Messages originating in one place are quickly spread across the globe through Retweets, @replies and Direct Messages. We see this behavior during everything from sporting events like the
  
  

  Whether across the world or across the street, Twitter — and more broadly, technology — allows people to view the world through each other's eyes. As a result, we are able to share information and communicate more easily than any time in our past, bringing the world closer.
  
  A special thanks to @miguelrios, whose visualizations of this data help the rest of us understand the world a little bit better.
  

  Posted by @ at 12:55 PM

• Link sharing made simple

  Tuesday, June 07, 2011

  We’ve been working on a bunch of features to make Twitter easier to use. Today, we’re releasing something that many of you have been asking for – automatic link shortening on Twitter.com.
  
  How does it work?
  Just paste a link of any length into the Tweet box on Twitter.com. After you’ve composed your Tweet and you hit the “Tweet” button, we’ll shorten the link so that it only takes up 19 characters.
  
  What’s in it for me?
  Sharing links on Twitter.com is now simple and instant. Plus, since we show a shortened version of the original link, people will know which site the link points to. This service also increases security. If users click links that are reported as malicious, we direct them to a page that warns them.
  
  What if I want analytics for my links?
  You can continue to use your favorite third-party link shortening services.
  
  Visit our support page if you want to learn more.

  Posted by @ at 4:05 PM

• Oba! Twitter in Brazilian Portuguese

  Starting today, Twitter will be available in Brazilian Portuguese. After official news from Brazilian President @dilmabr and the presidential palace.

• @HuckLuciano: Luciano Huck, a TV personality, shares news and commentary on everything from sports to current projects, and, as the daughter of a former Minister of Culture, political and cultural news.

In addition to mobile.twitter.com and Twitter for Android have also been translated. We’re working to support Portuguese in other mobile applications soon. Portuguese SMS commands and replies are supported by Nextel and TIM.

For official updates and news from Twitter for Portuguese, follow @twitter_pt, and for support, @ajuda. Obrigado aos nossos tradutores — não fique de fora!