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Twitter launches new homepage to strengthen real-time content search
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Twitter's new homepage
When opening Twitter's new homepage, users will find a prominent search box that reads "See what people are saying about..." Users may enter keywords or a phrase to search for the latest related tweets, a new function for Twitter.
Aside from Twitter's existing users, non-registered users who are interested in the website can also easily read commonly-discussed topics. Below the search box, there are three lines of the most popular topics by minute, day and week.
Twitter's old homepage
Twitter has only redesigned its main homepage; the homepage for logged in users remains unchanged.
Last year, Twitter acquired the search engine company Summize to strengthen its search capability. Prior to this, it was difficult for users to search on Twitter as they had to go to the Tweet website to search.
Twitter has only recently incorporated the search feature into the logged in user homepage. The redesigned homepage suggests that Twitter is moving toward the search engine business.
Twitter's new search page
In addition, on the page of search results, Twitter has launched a series of tips to help users navigate the search engine. For example, users can add symbols like ":)" to keywords, indicating that they want positive search results; if "movie :)" is searched, positive movie-related discussion topics are displayed. Using the combination of "Until:" and a date to search, such as "until:2009-7-16," will provide relevant content prior to July 16, 2009.
Twitter co-founder Biz Stone had long been aware that new visitors were dissatisfied with the old homepage. He said in his blog that one of the objectives for the launch of the new homepage was to leave new visitors with a good first impression.
"Demonstrating the power of Twitter as a discovery engine for what is happening right now through our Search and Trends often awakens a sense of wonder which inevitably leads to the much more compelling question, 'How do I get involved?'"
Twitter was originally intended to be a social networking website that helps maintain contact between family members or friends. However, the current Twitter has become a communication tool for brainstorming by global users.
Twitter's help page for the new search function
The difference between the old and new description of the website indicates the changes to Twitter's philosophy. The old homepage read "Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: what are you doing?" while the new homepage describes the website as a tool to "share and discover what's happening right now, anywhere in the world."
By People's Daily Online
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