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Twitter is a social networking site that was created in 2006. Users send "tweets" to let people know what they are doing. It was created by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams.

Twitter accused of hypocrisy over Trump tweets

Twitter is a social networking site that was created in 2006. Users send “tweets” to let people know what they are doing. It was created by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams. Prior to building the service, they were working on a podcast directory called Odeo.

Odeo was a directory and search destination website for RSS-syndicated audio and video. It employed tools that enabled users to create, record, and share podcasts with a simple Adobe Flash-based interface.

When iTunes 4.9 was released, it ultimately made Odeo irrelevant. The people behind the company went on to create a service called Twttr. Twttr would eventually be called Twitter. iTunes 4.9, believe it or not, ultimately led to the creation of one of the most popular social networks in the world.

The major turning point for service’s popularity was the 2007 South by Southwest Interactive conference. Over the next few years, Twitter began to see rapid growth. For mobile devices, it originally relied upon third-party apps. In 2010, Twitter acquired application developer Atebits. Atebits had built the Twitter app known as Tweetie for the Mac and iPhone. It was renamed as Twitter and released for free.

Over the years, the apps have seen various revisions. There are currently versions available for iOS while desktop users must either use the web interface or a third party app like Tweetbot or Twitterrific.

Twitter stops respecting Do Not Track next month, extends tracking to 30 days

Twitter has introduced a new privacy policy, with some significant changes taking effect next month.

First, it is no longer respecting Do Not Track, which allowed web users to opt out of cross-site tracking on websites that honor the setting. Do Not Track is supported by most major browsers, including Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Opera and Internet Explorer …


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Twitter reveals 11 more video partners a day after announcing Bloomberg deal

Just one day after announcing a deal with Bloomberg to stream news reports 24/7, Twitter has now revealed video partnership arrangements with 11 more content providers in the fields of news, sports and entertainment.

News partners will be Bloomberg, Buzzfeed, Cheddar and The Verge. Sports coverage will be provided by MLBAB, PGA Tour, The Players’ Tribune and Stadium. The three entertainment channels will be IMG Fashion, Live Nation and Propagate.

Twitter also revealed the specifics of what to expect from each partner …


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Trump proves a boon for Twitter growth as service plans 24/7 live video

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Wednesday morning, Twitter held its shareholders meeting for Q1 2017 results. Pointing to the changes it introduced to fight abusive accounts, pulling @names from a Tweet’s character count, and building out an API were all reported as contributing factors for monthly active user growth. A key area that may have contributed to the 9 million new users seen in Q1 was the vocal political leaders on the platform like President Donald Trump.


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Twitter lays out new unified developer roadmap focusing on improved APIs

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Following up on the release of today’s Twitter Lite launch, the company has laid out new plans in launching a new developer API experience later this year. According to Twitter, they will be unifying the API platform so that businesses and developers can scale new applications. Citing companies like Sprout Social and the USGS, Twitter hopes to refine the platform’s API to help these businesses innovate.


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Twitter Lite launches today, needs less storage space, uses less data

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If you like to keep up to date with Twitter but are tight on storage space or want to reduce data usage, the company has a new option as of today. Twitter Lite is what’s known as a Progressive Web App. Running in Safari and other mobile browsers, it’s a client-side JavaScript application that takes up less than 1MB of storage space.

Twitter says that the service also minimizes data usage and is resilient on unreliable and congested mobile networks, also supporting an offline mode. You also have the option of further reducing data usage by only downloading low-res previews of images and videos …


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Would you pay a monthly fee for an ad-free Twitter w/ deeper analytic information? [Poll]

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Last night, a report emerged claiming that Twitter was mulling the possibility of launching a subscription tier of its social network. The new service is said to be targeting professionals, including journalists and news organizations. Though, the feature is not yet believed to be in development, but rather Twitter is mulling the possibility of integrating such a service into Tweetdeck.

Would you pay a monthly price for advanced Twitter features?


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PSA: Here’s how to secure your Twitter account against hijacks like today’s Nazi one

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Thousands of Twitter users have this morning had their accounts hijacked and used to tweet a swastika and Nazi hashtags. The attack appears to be in support of Turkey’s President, urging support for a referendum which could allow President Erdoğan to remain in power until 2029.

The Verge reports that many verified and high-profile Twitter accounts were compromised, and that the hijack appears to have been carried out via a third-party app.

Accounts operated by Amnesty International, Duke University, Reuters Japan, and BBC North America were among those hijacked. Several users have noted that all hijacked tweets appear to have been linked to Twitter Counter, a Netherlands-based analytics application. Twitter Counter was previously targeted in a November 2016 attack that caused some high-profile accounts to spread spam. 

Twitter confirmed that a third-party app was behind the hack, so checking which apps have permission to access your Twitter account is one important step to take. Here’s a quick checklist to check the security of Twitter and other services …


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