We've become numb to Facebook changing some setting or design every few weeks. But Twitter recently made its first big website change in four years.
The new Twitter (www.twitter.com) has more elements on the home screen, but the initial feeling of "Gah, what is all this?" will go away after you learn how it can save you time while surfing through posts. For those without time to poke around, here's a quick breakdown:
Split screens: When you click on someone's tweet from the feed on the left, the right side of your screen will show the person's most recent tweet and all related information, including who retweeted it, what they were responding to and the bios of anyone mentioned. No more hopping around from window to window, forgetting where you originally started. You can also get a split screen of that user's most recent tweets.
Embedded media: Click on a tweet in the feed, and on the right it will show the photos, videos and maps a user linked to, instead of having to follow the link in a new window.
Local trends: The home screen shows the most popular words being tweeted around the world, but you can narrow it to a few big metro areas (but not the Twin Cities yet).
So why did Twitter wait four years?
"We were a very small team until recently," said Biz Stone, Twitter's co-founder and chief creative director. "We just didn't have a chance to take a hard look at the website."
Considering Twitter has grown from 3 million users to more than 165 million -- with 90 million tweets sent a day -- it's good that it has made it quicker to comb through the noise.
