New Twitter takes flight

Twitter announced a fairly significant redesign last week, changing the nature of their 'information network'. New tabs have been created for Twitter.com, there are new brand/business pages and Tweets can now be embedded into websites. Mashable posted a rundown (with video) of all the changes.

The new tabs, apart from the Discover tab that algorithmically finds relevant tweets from people not followed, are basically a restructuring of existing features. Most of the attention this week has been focused on the enhanced profile pages for brands. Imedia Connection listed the features of the new pages along with five brand benefits that businesses could take advantage of. The best comparison to business pages at Facebook and Google+ came from PC World, which listed the pros and cons of each.

The embeddable Tweets also created some buzz. Twitter explained how a website could add a line of code (similar to the Facebook Like Button code) and have a 'live' Tweet on their site that can be directly replied to or retweeted. The blog All Twitter provided the details of how it will work, calling the new functionality 'incredibly welcome and really useful'.