Twitter today announced the debut of two new features: photo integration and improved search capabilities.
On the photo front, Twitter has partnered with Photobucket to allow users to attach photos directly to their Tweets rather than having to rely on third-party image-hosting services. The capabilities will be rolling out over the next several weeks to twitter.com and the company's official apps, and the company is working with mobile carriers to allow photos to be sent via MMS.
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Over the next several weeks, we'll be releasing a feature to upload a photo and attach it to your Tweet right from Twitter.com. And of course, you'll soon be able to easily do this from all of our official mobile apps. A special thanks to our partner Photobucket for hosting these photos behind the scenes.
Twitter's improved search capabilities will bring increased relevance for results and also include related photos and videos directly on the results page. Twitter has also partnered with Firefox to integrate hashtag and username searching directly into the browser's address bar.
Twitter's new features are interesting given rumors that iOS 5 will include substantial integration with Twitter, specifically including the new photo sharing service. While Twitter obviously has made no announcements regarding such capabilities, we may hear more in just a few days as Apple previews iOS 5 at its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.
Top Rated Comments
Twitter is sort of a big deal. Are you the same type of person who said "Well, this Facebook thing will never take off"
Wrong.
Twitter and Facebook are as bad as the way it is being used.
I get more education and information about a large variety of topics on Twitter daily, than one can get anywhere else.
Don't paint everyone with the same brush. The tweens who use Twitter to talk to celebs and ask "should i go outside today or not?" are the same as the friends you have on Facebook who ask the same stupid questions on their status updates.
Best thing is, if you're not following your 'friends' then you won't see the nonsense. If you just want to send them a message once all you have to type is "@theirusername".
For me, i only have my close friends and family on Twitter. Which are very few people. I'm mainly following organizations, companies, developers, educational institutions etc.
The potential of Twitter is amazing, but it all depends on how you use it.
For example, i have my local transit company on Twitter, and it posts information whenever there is a delay or a shut down. I get that in real time, so i know that there is a delay in a certain station or it's closed for an emergency 45seconds after it was reported. Thus I can map out alternative routes, or the transit informs me about shuttle busses that i can use to bypass the place. All in a matter on minutes, instead of me going to the station to see that I'm going to be running late for work, thus saving me a lot of time.
That's just one of the many ways Twitter works. Again, its not for everyone, but it's certainly not justice to paint everyone who uses it with the same brush.
So yes, it can be used as an app that helps solve some scientific lines of inquiry.
"Jeff is gearing up for the weekend"
#whogivesash*t
Yeah, you weren't using Twitter correctly. It has MUCH more to offer.
Oh well...