Twitter ready to monetise with revamp
Twitter yesterday said it is redesigning its website in an effort to make it easier for users to navigate the service and discover new information.
Chief executive Evan Williams announced that the four-year-old company, which on average is now signing up 370,000 new users daily, will introduce a completely new system which is more responsive and user friendly.
The site will feature a new two-pane layout and users will be able to embed YouTube videos and various other content on the screen.
The changes promise a “richer and faster experience”, Williams said at a press conference to announce the new site. His hopes are that the redesign will also help to better monetise the service as a new advertising system is introduced.
Forrester analyst Augie Ray said the redesign should help improve engagement with users.
“Twitter’s new web functionality is a significant evolution that promises to attract more visits to Twitter.com, improve Twitterers’ interactions with content and each other, and ease adoption for Twitter newbies,” Ray said in a blog post.
The new Twitter.com will be launched for a small percentage of users next Tuesday, and will later be rolled out incrementally across the globe over the coming weeks.
The announcement comes after Google bosses this week said that their company plans to develop a new social networking platform.
The move is being regarded as a serious attempt to challenge the dominance of rival Facebook in social media.
With more than 90m tweets sent per day on average, Twitter is increasingly challenging established web giants such as Yahoo and Google for consumers’ online time.