• This Year on Twitter

    Tuesday, December 11, 2012



    2012.twitter.com

    Update: We've added two screenshots below for those of you who want the front page artwork for web and mobile versions.

    Every day, we’re amazed and humbled by the many ways in which people use Twitter, which range from simply retweeting to igniting conversations with hashtags (even around lesser-known topics) to sharing spectacular and far-flung views. In 2012, everyone on Twitter brought us closer to moments and places that used to be far away or inaccessible: A Tweet from the bottom of the ocean. Tweets from Mars. An extraordinary view from space of Superstorm Sandy. A quiet backstage moment with a presidential candidate. All of these and millions of other such moments were ours to experience directly wherever we were, in the midst of work or play or travel.

    During big sporting events, fans were the roar of the crowd, tweeting their team passions. Commentators and armchair pundits alike took to Twitter to share their opinions, arguments and reactions throughout the campaigns, conventions, debates and on Election Day. Millions of music fans flocked to Twitter during the MTV Video Music Awards to tweet about the performances and react to winners and losers that night.

    You can explore and discover all of these moments and people who made this year on Twitter unique at 2012.twitter.com, and you’ll have the same immersive experience on your mobile device. We’ve taken a look back at the Tweets of 2012 and use both data and editorial signals to showcase some of these moments and conversations around several themes:
    • Golden Tweets: The top two Tweets that generated the most Retweets for the year, plus honorable mentions for a few others that caught attention around the world. 
    • The pulse of the planet: Some of the biggest conversations of the year that generated large numbers of Tweets and Retweets. 
    • Only on Twitter: Moments of serendipity and just plain awesomeness (if there is such a thing) are what we call #onlyontwitter. We list examples of Tweets that came to life organically on Twitter, and can be appreciated in an instant. 
    • Top trends: Lists of the significant Trends of the year in the U.S., UK and Japan. These phrases reveal what captured our attention based on sudden spike of interest, rather than what was consistently popular. 
    • New voices: From the Pope to Pelé, this year Twitter welcomed new voices from every corner of the world. 
    We’ve also partnered with Vizify so you can find out about your year on Twitter. Try it here.

    Finally, our heartfelt thanks go to each and every one of you for making Twitter as compelling as it is. It’s all about you.

     



    Posted by Karen Wickre (@kvox)
    Editorial Director

    Posted by @ at 5:08 AM

  • Twitter photos: Put a filter on it

    Monday, December 10, 2012

    Every day, millions of people come to Twitter to connect with the things they care about and find out what’s happening around the world. As one of the most compelling forms of self-expression, photos have long been an important part of these experiences.

    Starting today, you’ll be able to edit and refine your photos, right from Twitter. The latest versions of Twitter for iPhone and Twitter for Android introduce a few new ways to enhance the images you tweet. We’re grateful to our partner, Aviary, for powering our filters and effects.


    Filters. Apply one of eight filters, ranging from black & white to vintage, to add a new look and feel to your photos.

    Take a bird’s-eye view. See how each filter would affect your photo in a single grid view, or swipe through looks to compare your options.

    Frame the action. Crop and pinch to zoom in order to focus attention.

    Auto-enhance. Make your photos pop with balanced light and colors by tapping the wand.

    In June, 2011, we introduced the ability to attach a photo to your Tweet, a first step toward improving the entire photo experience on Twitter. Since then we’ve been making it easier and faster to share and discover and enjoy great photos on Twitter every day:

    • You can expand Tweets to view photos from various photo services right on Twitter;
    • You can preview photos directly in Discover and search;
    • You can quickly swipe through images on Twitter with photo streams in profiles and search results.

    We've released this update in Google Play and the App Store. Watch this video to learn more about our photo filters.



    Posted by Coleen Baik (@colbay)
    Senior Designer

    Posted by @ at 3:12 PM

  • New profiles for everyone

    A few months ago, we introduced new Twitter profiles so that you could make your profile beautiful and display your style on your profile page. By uploading a header photo on twitter.com or our mobile apps on iPhone, iPad or Android, you can make your profile more uniquely yours. We’ve seen a lot of cool takes on these new profiles –– including shots from Mars, silly themes, and brands and celebrities expressing themselves in clever ways.

    On December 12, we’re rolling this out to all users: you’ll automatically get this new version of the profile on twitter.com. If you don’t upload a header photo by then, you (and everyone else) will only see a default grey image on your page. That’s not fun! To get inspired about what you can do, check out this video to see how to make your profile a little more “you”, less generic. Have fun out there.



    Posted by Sachin Agarwal (@agarwal)
    Product Manager

    Posted by @ at 10:52 AM

  • This week on Twitter - 10 December

    On most Mondays, we post “This week on Twitter” to alert you to key things happening in the coming week. Whether it’s a live chat with the cast of your favorite TV show, a Q&A with a political candidate or a pro sports team Tweepstakes, keep current about can’t-miss moments on Twitter in the week ahead. - Ed.

    Dec. 10: Richard Hammond’s Crash Course at Twitter HQ 
    “Crash Course” (@BBCAmerica) fans can tune in to this week’s episode as Richard Hammond (@thehamsterscage) attempts to work as a bike messenger in San Francisco. His first stop is Twitter HQ, where he finds irony in working at a very old means of information transfer while Tweeting. The season finale airs tonight, Dec. 10, at 10 p.m. ET.

     
    Dec. 10: Dexter’s Yvonne Strahovski Twitter Q&A 
    Today, Dec. 10 at 2 p.m. ET, “Dexter” (@SHO_Dexter) actress Yvonne Strahovski (@Y_Strahovski) is doing a special Twitter Q&A along with moderator and Vanity Fair editor Krista Smith (@KristaSmith). You can ask questions using #AskYvonne; then, check Twitter to see if your questions are answered.

     
    Dec. 13: @bravotopchef’s “Saves a Chef” 
    Each week on Bravo’s “Top Chef: Last Chance Kitchen,” fans vote to save a chef who was eliminated from a previous episode. The ultimate winner will return to compete in the #LCK finale for a chance to re-enter the #TopChef competition on air. This week, Cheftestants Jeffrey Jew (@chefjeffdc) and Kuniko Yagi (@ChefKuniko) are eligible to be saved. You can vote using hashtags #savechefjeffrey and #savechefkuniko for a chance to send them back into the competition. The voting period ends this Thursday, Dec. 13 at 9 a.m. ET.




    Posted by Rachael Horwitz (@RachaelRad)
    Communications

    Posted by @ at 5:00 AM

  • See Trends for 100 more cities

    Wednesday, December 05, 2012

    Today, we’re bringing Trends to 100 more cities around the world including Istanbul, Frankfurt, Guadalajara and Incheon. With this update, we now surface the ‘most breaking’ news in more than 200 locations. To view Trends for different locations, just click “Change” in the Trends section.


    People around the world turn to Twitter to talk about a range of topics – from football to giving thanks to sharing information and resources during natural disasters and emergencies. This is why Twitter uniquely captures the pulse of the planet, and the pulse of your city: by surfacing the topics that people care about. We’ll continue to add Trends locations so that it’s easy for more people to quickly see what others are talking about, globally and locally.

    Posted by Kostas Tsioutsiouliklis (@kostas)
    Engineer, Search and Relevance

    Posted by @ at 10:15 AM

  • NFL on Twitter: Week 13

    Tuesday, December 04, 2012

    The @49ers and @STLouisRams were just 26 seconds away from their second tie of the season — but that didn’t land them on top of Twitter chatter this week. Instead, the top games were:

    

1. @giants vs. @redskins
    
2. @saints vs. @atlanta_falcons
    
3. @eagles vs. @dallascowboys

    

Players who received a good deal of Twitter attention this week were @drewbrees, Andrew Luck and @Mark_Sanchez.

 But understandably, fans and NFL players alike overwhelmingly expressed their shock and sorrow concerning the tragic deaths of @KCChiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher and Kasandra Perkins. Our thoughts are with the @NFL community and those affected. 




    Posted by Omid Ashtari (@omid)

    Head of Sports & Entertainment

    Posted by @ at 12:18 PM

  • Welcome, Pope Benedict XVI

    Monday, December 03, 2012

    Today, the Vatican announced that on December 12, which is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Pope Benedict XVI (@pontifex) will be the first Pope to join Twitter. Beginning now, people everywhere will have a chance to Tweet questions relating to faith and belief using the hashtag #AskPontifex. Questions will be curated by the Vatican staff for the Pope to respond to via his new Twitter account on December 12th in a live tweeting event at the end of his weekly audience.

    Spiritual and religious leaders around the world spread their messages and maintain an exceptionally strong presence on Twitter. Perhaps not surprisingly, we see a very high level of engagement with religious and spiritual content: followers respond to these topics with replies, retweets, and clicks on links much more often than they do other subjects. From globally-recognized names to local pastors and faith groups, a wide range of spiritual leaders embrace Twitter to minister to their communities and share meaningful messages.

    While @Pontifex will be the Pope’s primary account in English, he will oversee many more accounts in major languages that offer translations of his Tweets, including these:
    - Spanish: @pontifex_es
    - Italian: @pontifex_it 
    - Portuguese: @pontifex_pt 
    - German: @pontifex_de
    - Polish: @pontifex_pl 
    - Arabic: @pontifex_ar
    - French: @pontifex_fr 

    The Pope’s presence on Twitter means that no matter where you live or where you are, you can connect with, and get inspiration directly from, one of the world’s most influential religious leaders.

    Posted by Claire Diaz Ortiz (@claire)
    Manager of Social Innovation

    Posted by @ at 8:00 AM

  • This Week on Twitter: 3 December

    On most Monday mornings, we’ll post “This week on Twitter” to alert you to key things happening in the coming week. Whether it’s a live chat with the cast of your favorite TV show, a Q&A with a political candidate or a pro sports team Tweepstakes, this is the way to keep current on the Can’t-Miss-Moments on Twitter for the week ahead. - Ed. 

    Dec 1-25: ABC Family’s 25 Days of Giving Back
    This effort started Dec. 1 and runs throughout ABC Family’s annual “25 Days of Giving Back.” The network is partnering with Feeding America (@feedingamerica) to help families in need during the holidays. To participate, you can donate and tweet by visiting www.abcfamily.com and following @abcfamily.


    Dec. 5: A&E’s Duck Dynasty (10:00-11:00 p.m. ET)
    A&E’s Duck Dynasty’s one hour Christmas Special will air this Wednesday, Dec. 5 from 10:00-11:00 p.m. ET. Fans are encouraged to tweet during the episode, and A&E will be rewarding tweeters with custom holiday cards based on the show’s characters. In addition, the series’ executive producer will answer your questions from @DuckDynastyAE.


    Dec. 6 - Scandal, ABC - #WhoShotFitz
    Following last week’s shocking episode of ABC’s Scandal (@scandalabc), you can speculate who shot character President Fitzgerald Grant using the hashtag #WhoShotFitz. Use the hashtag leading up to this Thursday’s airing at 10 p.m. ET., and visit the show’s event page here as the cast live-tweets the episode titled “Happy Birthday Mr. President”.


    Follow the Scandal cast and team on Twitter:
    Kerry Washington @kerrywashington
    Columbus Short @ColumbusShort1
    Guillermo Diaz @guillermodiazyo
    Katie Lowes @KatieQLowes
    Joshua Malina @JoshMalina
    Darby Stanchfield @darbystnchfld
    Tony Goldwyn @TonyGoldwyn
    Dan Bucatinsky @DanBucantinsky
    Jeff Perry @JscandalP
    Bellamy Young @BellamyYoung
    Shonda Rhimes @ShondaRhimes
    Scandal Writers @ScandalWriters

    Posted by Rachael Horwitz (@rachaelrad)

    Communications Team

    Posted by @ at 6:00 AM

  • NFL on Twitter: Week 12

    Tuesday, November 27, 2012

    It's no surprise that the @DallasCowboys, aka America’s team, and phenom rookie QB @RGIII placed the Cowboys / Redskins game as the most mentioned on Twitter for Week 12. Meanwhile, the other NFC East team, the @Giants, ended the @Packers' winning streak with a big 38-10 victory over Green Bay.

    Here are this week's most buzzed-about games:

    1. @DallasCowboys vs. @Redskins 
    2. @Packers vs. @Giants 
    3. @HoustonTexans vs. @DetroitLionsNFL 




    And the week's most tweeted-about player was @RGIII . 
    Posted by Omid Ashtari (@omid)
    Head of Sports & Entertainment

    Posted by @ at 12:04 PM

  • Twitter Fiction Festival selections

    After reviewing a wide array of entries from 20+ countries, the Twitter Fiction Festival selection panel has chosen a diverse array of storytelling projects to showcase during the Festival. The external panel was composed of experts from around the publishing industry in the US, but the showcase they’ve selected includes published and novice authors from all over the globe. These special Twitter experiments will be highlighted on a dedicated showcase page during the Festival, starting Wednesday.

    The Festival showcase will be a completely virtual event, taking place on Twitter with participants from five continents and stories in five languages. For five days, Wednesday, November 28 to Sunday, December 2, you’ll be able to find creative experiments in story-telling on Twitter around the clock.

    As the stories chosen by the panel are showcased during the Festival, we invite everyone else (whether you submitted or not) to tell your stories on Twitter during the Festival too! We’ll highlight a number of your stories from the @twitterbooks account.

    Whether you have a big idea or not, there are still some easy ways to get involved:
    - create a character and tell a story in his or her voice
    - tell a story from your own account
    - tell a story in a single Tweet
    ...and of course, any other creative ideas you have. Make sure to use the #twitterfiction hashtag so that readers can find your work.

    The Twitter Fiction Festival isn’t just for writers— it’s for readers too! You can enjoy the showcase selections at the #twitterfiction page. There will be stories being told on that page at all hours of the day during the Festival. You can also find and follow accounts telling stories during the festival by searching the #twitterfiction hashtag.

    Without further ado, here are the selections:

    Starting with the idea of a Twitter feed used as evidence, author Elliott Holt (@elliottholt) will tell the story of a crime. The audience will see that story unfold via three different perspectives, and then will have to weigh the presented evidence for themselves.
    Wednesday at 7pm EST (24:00 GMT) 

    Author Jennifer Wilson (@writerjenwilson) will invite Twitter users to help her write epigraphs for gravestones. Posting photographs of the existing stones, the community input will inspire short stories about each of the departed.
    Friday and Sunday at 12noon EST (17:00 GMT) 

    HarperCollins Australia (@HarperCollinsAU) presents “Around the World in 80 Hours”, a globe-trotting, media-mixing, collaborative story of intrigue. This story will be told with the help of authors Nikki Gemmell (@NikkiGemmell) and Greg Barron (@gregorybarron).
    Begins Thursday at 12am EST (05:00 GMT) 

    Perhaps no story is more powerful than a myth. Lucy Coats (@lucycoats) from Northampton UK, will re-tell 100 Greek myths in 100 Tweets.
    Wednesday 21 Nov. till Sunday 25 Nov. 9am EST (14:00 GMT) 

    “Censortive” is a story by a Chinese author that combines the words “censor” and “sensitive” and will explore the idea of permitted speech in the People’s Republic of China.
    Every night at 2am EST (7:00 GMT) 

    The Museo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología is itself a fiction: @munacyt is meant to create the desire for a Mexican national museum dedicated to science and technology. Over the course of the Festival, the Museum will take us on an expedition in Spanish to a future island in Mexico.
    Thursday through Sunday at 11pm EST (4:00 GMT) 

    Digital publisher Plympton and Code Meets Print have joined forces to invite readers to submit “Very Short Fiction” using the hashtag #VSS.
    Throughout the Festival 

    In a project inspired by Italo Calvino’s “Italian Folktales”, @00serialTW is posting Twitter versions of folk tales in Italian.
    Thursday through Sunday at 4am EST (09:00 GMT) 

    Marcel Lasoen, a very old man, has taken to Twitter to reconnect with his family. Author Marc Capelle, tweeting in French, will bring us @MarcelLasoen's story.
    Thursday through Sunday at 6am EST (11:00 GMT) 

    Shakespeare is eminently quotable, and publisher W.W. Norton (@wwnorton) will take advantage of that to offer “Found Shakespeare” selections, retweeting classic lines together into segments of the Bard’s plays.
    Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday at 12noon EST (17:00 GMT) 

    The Gronsteins are a modern American family going through a tough time after Dad lost his job. In Ben Schrank’s (@BDSchrank) story, they share a Twitter account from which they chronicle life in their home.
    Wednesday through Saturday at 1pm EST (18:00 GMT) 

    London-based Faiq Muneef brings an Arabic language story to the Festival with the story of “The Crying Canary”.
    Sunday at 8am EST (13:00 GMT) 

    Writing in French, Fabrice Colin (@fabricecolin) will bring us the serialized story of five strangers trapped on a bus and sharing an incredible experience.
    Thursday to Sunday at 7am EST (12:00 GMT) 

    Emmy Laybourne (@emmylaybourne) and Anna Banks (@byannabanks) will put a humorous spin on the paranormal young adult story with love affair between a teenage girl and a...Sasquatch.
    Wednesday through Sunday at 4pm EST (21:00 GMT) 

    For author Kurt Crisman (@unpublishedguy) online descriptions of TV episodes tell a story all their own. He’ll weave a whole story together out of these to describe five seasons of a science fiction show with an absurdist twist.
    Every day, updated hourly

    In the 1960s, @FathomButterfly was a notorious English B-movie star, beauty queen and showgirl. Author Josh Gosfield (@JoshGosfield) has recently convinced her to write a “memoir in Tweets”.
    When: Wednesday through Sunday at 5pm EST (22:00 GMT)

    “ManyPasts” (or “MuchoPasados”) is a writing game designed by Alberto Chimal (@albertochimal). In English and Spanish, and with the help of the Twitter community, Tweets will form branching stories.
    Friday and Sunday at 8pm EST (01:00 GMT) 

    Plenty of mothers overlook the faults of their children, and The Proud Zombie Mom might be one of the worst offenders. According to Andrew Shaffer (@andrewtshaffer) she insists her zombie daughter only has “life allergies.”
    Wednesday through Sunday at 11am EST (16:00 GMT)

    Come to dinner with Dana Sachs (@DanaSachs), who will be working with different literary characters to serve up Stone Soup, a celebration of great writing and (perhaps) truly bizarre food. 
    Saturday at 8pm EST (01:00 GMT)

    Ifeoluwapo Odedere offers a satire, written in the style of the King James Bible, about a Nigerian community whose attempts to find a sustainable power source are continually thwarted by a saboteur.
    Thursday through Saturday at 8am EST (13:00 GMT) 

    Stevie Ronnie (@stevieronnie), from Newcastle UK, will tell an interactive poem of 50 lines that, when complete, can be read in either direction.
    Saturday and Sunday at 10am EST (15:00 GMT)

    In a tense psychological thriller, Andrew Pyper (@andrewpyper) re-tells the classic Henry James ghost story “The Turn of the Screw” — set in a present-day White House. We will follow the Tweets of the new nanny, who is increasingly convinced something strange is afoot.
    Thursday through Sunday at 7pm EST (00:00 GMT) 

    Writing from South Africa, author Lauren Beukes (@laurenbeukes) will challenge herself to write #LitMash stories: taking incongruous community suggestions (the weirder the better!) and telling a story that matches them.
    Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 10am EST (15:00 GMT) 

    From the city that brought us Dashiell Hammett, author Scott Hutchins (@ScottHutch) will tell a modern day detective noir tale illustrated with pictures from around San Francisco.
    Wednesday through Sunday at 6pm EST (23:00 GMT)

    Lily is a girl who has to make a tough choice of one of two paths. Thanks to this story from Zoe Ruderman (@zoemarianna), we’ll be able to follow Lily’s story down both routes.
    Thursday at 8pm; Friday through Sunday at 1pm EST (18:00 GMT)

    Joe and Veronica are two cubicle serfs who had a relatively banal love affair and break-up. Alina Simone (@alinasimone) will enliven the re-telling of their story with illustrations and other media. 
    Thursday at 2pm EST (19:00 GMT) 

    A group of four authors in Paris plan to work together to build collaborative sonnets in French, which they call #TwitRature.
    Thursday to Sunday at 5am EST (10:00 GMT) 

    Over a hundred years ago Ambrose Bierce betrayed a man by the name of Ulysses McGraw. Now come back to life, McGraw will tell his story with the help of Brian O’Connor, writing from South Korea.
    Friday to Sunday at 1am EST (06:00 GMT) 

    Writing in Argentina, Marcos Pereyra will bring us a prequel to his Spanish language Twitter thriller “Te sigo” (“I am following you”).
    Thursday to Sunday at 10pm EST (03:00 GMT) 

    See you tomorrow at the Festival!

    Posted by Andrew Fitzgerald (@magicandrew)
    Media R&D

    Posted by @ at 10:58 AM