When you follow interesting accounts on Twitter, it’s easy to stay connected with what’s most meaningful to you. Today we’re excited to launch the Follow Button, a new way to discover and instantly follow Twitter accounts directly from the websites you visit every day.



More than 50 sites have added the Follow Button today, making it easy for you to discover the Twitter accounts of your favorite reporters, athletes, celebrities, and other personalities. Using the Follow Button is as simple as a single click. You can also see the profile and latest Tweets of the account you want to follow by clicking the username next to the Button.

For publishers and brands, adding the Follow Button to your website and using Twitter to stay connected with your audience is a powerful combination. People who follow your account are much more likely to retweet and engage with your Tweets, and to repeatedly visit your website. Adding the Follow Button to your website is quick and easy, and you can configure yours right now at twitter.com/followbutton.

We’re launching the Follow Button with these partners today:

AOL.com, AOL Phoenix, About.me, All Time Low, Justin Bieber, bnet.com, Britney Spears, CBS Interactive, CBS News, cbs.com, cbssports.com, chow.com, cnet.com, CNNMoney, Condé Nast, EL PAÍS, Fox News, Fox Business, Fox Sports, Gameone.de, gamespot.com, Glamour, GQ, Greyson Chance, IMDb, Jennifer Lopez, Lady Gaga, LMFAO, MarketWatch, maxpreps.com, moneywatch.com, MTV.co.uk, MTV.com, MTV.de, Multimedios, mysimon.com, Radio.com, Ryan Seacrest, Shockwave.com, smartplanet.com, Sports Illustrated, techrepublic.com, Teen Vogue, TF1, The Huffington Post, The Telegraph, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Tr3s.com, tv.com, TVGuide.com, Vanity Fair, WAT.tv, Wired, WordPress.com, Yahoo! Local, and zdnet.com.

In early 2008, a London-based programmer named Iain Dodsworth began thinking about how to organize everything happening on Twitter. His answer was TweetDeck, a groundbreaking dashboard for monitoring what people are saying in real-time. Today, we’re pleased to announce that the TweetDeck team has joined Twitter.

This acquisition is an important step forward for us. TweetDeck provides brands, publishers, marketers and others with a powerful platform to track all the real-time conversations they care about. In order to support this important constituency, we will continue to invest in the TweetDeck that users know and love.

TweetDeck is a great example of a third-party developer that designed tools for the incredibly important audience of Twitter power-users and, in turn, created value for the network as a whole. As Iain’s journey suggests, there is significant opportunity for developers who deliver insights that foster a more engaged Twitter user base.

For TweetDeck's perspective on today's news, check out their blog here.

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The Twitter ecosystem contains hundreds of thousands of interesting third-party applications designed to enhance your Twitter experience. Third-party apps let you do things like automatically share your Tweets on other networks, connect to other players on gaming platforms, or instantly tweet whenever you update your blog.

All third-party applications that you allow to access your Twitter account go through a permissions process. Today we’re announcing an update to help you make more informed choices about the way third-party apps integrate with your Twitter account:

More Control: Beginning today, we’re giving you more control over what information you share with third-party applications. Apps that you use to access your direct messages will ask for your permission again. By the middle of June June 30, applications that do not need access to your direct messages will no longer have it, and you can continue to use these apps as usual.

More Detailed Permissions Screen: When you first connect an application to Twitter, we’ll give you more detailed information about what you’re allowing the app to do with your account. These activities may include reading your Tweets, seeing who you follow, updating your profile, posting Tweets on your behalf, or accessing your direct messages. If you’re not comfortable with the level of access an application requests, simply say “No, thanks”.

We’ve been preparing these changes in response to requests from users and developers who asked for a greater level of clarity and control. For a summary of the applications you’ve approved or to make changes to this list, visit the “Applications” page in your Twitter account.

When Twitter for Mac launched at the beginning of the year it received praise for its simplicity, speed and look. It also came packed with features like auto-shortened URLs, Tweets appearing in real-time, and multi-account support.Today, we’re releasing the first major update to Twitter for Mac. Some of the highlights:

• See multiple timelines at once. You can open more than one Twitter for Mac window at any time, giving you a chance to view your home timeline, @mentions, lists, multiple accounts, and more – all at once. Just go to the Window menu and then scroll down to “Open in New Window”.
• Take actions more quickly and easily. We made design changes that make the app easier to use and look even cleaner.
• We added a bar along the top that lets you easily click back to previous pages.
• There is now a separate “New Tweet” button in the bottom left corner of the app.
• We improved the design of Direct Messages, making it easier to view a conversation.
• User profiles now make it easier to learn about and interact with a user.
• Tweet faster. Twitter for Mac now has username and hashtag auto-complete.

You can download the update from the Mac App Store now.

TV and Twitter have a special connection. Broadcasters are eager to provide new ways to drive viewer engagement. Twitter provides a forum for real-time context and commentary that turns watchers into participants.

Over the past few years, Twitter’s media team has worked with broadcasters on a new interactive experience. The video below showcases some of the on-air best practices broadcasters have embraced:



Last week, Twitter enjoyed its widest television integration to date via the live coverage of the royal wedding, as Chloe Sladden from our media team discusses on the Twitter Media blog. During the wedding, users interacted with ABC News’ coverage by using the hashtags #RoyalSuccess and #RoyalMess to voice their opinion about the events unfolding in London. They shared their thoughts with CNN by including the hashtag #CNNTV in their Tweets, causing #CNNTV to trend early in the event. And as audiences around the world watched the events live on TV, they posted millions of Tweets, peaking at 16,000 Tweets per minute between 5 and 6 a.m. EST.

The royal wedding is just one example of how real-time Twitter integration can enhance TV coverage and help drive viewership. In fact, we’ve found that across networks and genres, when TV shows bring Twitter elements into the broadcast, there’s a direct and immediate increase in engagement on Twitter: anywhere from two to ten times more Tweets created while the shows air. From live tweeting and on-screen hashtags to real-time visualizations of audience attention and the new 360-degree live events, incorporating Twitter into a television event simply and significantly increases audience engagement.