Twitter brings you closer to your favorite athletes, past and present. Even though an athlete has retired the admiration and connection with and from fans doesn't diminish with the passing of time. Stars want to stay close and fans want a way to keep up with their favorite athletes of years passed, and if we’re lucky, gain insight into moments from their career.

For this week’s #OnlyOnTwitter, we bring you three legends of sports.

Fifteen years ago, boxing champion Mike Tyson fought Evander Holyfield. What made headlines wasn’t the winner of the match, it was that Tyson bit off a piece of Holyfield’s ear. Today, they’re both on Twitter.

@MikeTyson @WBCBoxing as I recall u bit both of my ears....other 1 wasn't marinated n my RealDealBBQ sauce. LOL! It's all good bro!

— Evander Holyfield (@holyfield) June 29, 2012

International soccer superstar @Pelé joined Twitter only in April of this year, but he’s already fitting right in. Here’s a picture he shared recently:

I’m almost always in a good mood and happy with my life. twitter.com/Pele/status/21…

— Pelé (@Pele) June 18, 2012

A welcome Tweet to another soccer great:

Welcome my good friend @Beckenbauer. God bless Der Kaiser!

— Pelé (@Pele) June 20, 2012

And he conducted a Twitter Q&A with some of his fans:

Hello everyone, I have some time to answer your questions. What would you like to ask? Send them to me with #AskPele

— Pelé (@Pele) June 27, 2012

And then, like the rest of us, Pelé stopped to watch #Euro2012:

Thanks for all the questions! Time to watch #Euro2012.

— Pelé (@Pele) June 27, 2012

Find more #OnlyOnTwitter moments from the world of sports here.

Posted by Andrew Fitzgerald, Manager, Editorial Programming (@magicandrew)

If we want there to be more women who pursue careers in engineering and computer science and feel welcome in these fields, we have to work on ways to increase the number of women studying engineering — it’s that simple. This is one reason we have an active Women in Engineering group (@womeng) at Twitter, made up of women and men, both engineers and non-engineers, who are passionate about encouraging young women to opt for and stay in computer science. Of course we have self-interest in this too: having more female engineers on staff leads to having an even better working environment at Twitter. But more importantly, we want to support engineering education and make it more accessible to young women.

All of which leads to our new partnership with Girls Who Code, a program founded by Reshma Saujani (@reshmasaujani), designed to introduce high school girls to software development skills. Through our investment of time, energy and money, we will be working with Girls Who Code to empower young women and provide them with the skills and resources necessary to pursue a career in engineering and technology.

Girls Who Code will begin this summer in New York City with an 8-week intensive program to teach basic principles of computer science and coding as well as sessions on design, research and entrepreneurship. Each participant will be matched with a female mentor from a tech company, and she and her mentor will work closely throughout the program and afterwards.

We cannot wait to see what the future holds for Girls Who Code, and we certainly hope to hire at least some of the participants in a few years. You can follow along too, via @womeng and @GirlsWhoCode.

Posted by Sara Haider, Engineer (@pandemona)

During sporting events, Twitter mirrors the roar of the crowd. This is especially true during big events like the European Football Championship, which has ignited a global conversation around soccer. Below is a visualization of support for #France (in blue) and #England (in red) during their #Euro2012 match on June 11. On that day, people tweeted from 160 different countries about the game.

Visualization by @miguelrios

To bring fans closer to this conversation as it unfolds during the final stages of the Euros, Twitter will have a special page located at twitter.com/#Euro2012. You’ll find the best and most relevant Tweets from commentators, broadcasters, journalists, players, former players and lots more who share their thoughts, expertise and emotional reactions as they’re watching the games.

Similar to the experience we created for NASCAR races, you’ll also find this page when you search for #Euro2012 on on twitter.com or mobile.twitter.com.

Whether you're glued to the action on TV or you’re trying to find a new way to experience the matches, the #Euro2012 page will give you an experience customized to each match. We’ll be kicking off today with the Germany and Greece quarter-final, which you can watch on ESPN at 2:45pm ET / 11:45am PT.

-Omid Ashtari, Twitter Sports & Entertainment Team (@omid)

Do you ever unwrap a candy bar and secretly hope for a Willy Wonka style golden ticket? Twitter can be a little like that: you never know when someone you admire is going to surprise you by intersecting with your world.

In fact, this happened today when pop princess @KatyPerry surprised her millions of followers with their own golden ticket — a chance to snag tickets to see her new movie, Katy Perry: Part of Me 3D, before its official release:

EXCLUSIVE #KP3D FAN SNEAK PEEKS JULY 2ND ONLY! B the 1st & get these purty pastel 3D specs! KatyPerryPartofMe.com/Sneak twitpic.com/9yzy84

— Katy Perry (@katyperry) June 21, 2012

Through Twitter, Katy has also let her fans step behind the camera and into the director’s chair. Followers helped her decide which costumes to wear, which songs to feature, and which pic goes on the movie poster:

About to shoot one of the last scenes for the music video... I have to pick a costume from the Cali Dreams Tour, which would u pick? #KP3D

— Katy Perry (@katyperry) May 3, 2012

RT this with the hashtag #KP3D1 if you like this one! twitter.com/katyperry/stat…

— Katy Perry (@katyperry) June 12, 2012

We see this all the time. When you follow your interests on Twitter, you’re among the first to find out about special opportunities that bring you closer to the people and events you care about most.

Posted by Karen Wickre, Editorial Director (@kvox)

Not how we wanted today to go. At approximately 9:00am PDT, we discovered that Twitter was inaccessible for all web users, and mobile clients were not showing new Tweets. We immediately began to investigate the issue and found that there was a cascading bug in one of our infrastructure components. This wasn’t due to a hack or our new office or Euro 2012 or GIF avatars, as some have speculated today. A “cascading bug” is a bug with an effect that isn’t confined to a particular software element, but rather its effect “cascades” into other elements as well. One of the characteristics of such a bug is that it can have a significant impact on all users, worldwide, which was the case today. As soon as we discovered it, we took corrective actions, which included rolling back to a previous stable version of Twitter.

We began recovery at around 10:10am PDT, dropped again around 10:40am PDT, and then began full recovery at 11:08am PDT. We are currently conducting a comprehensive review to ensure that we can avoid this chain of events in the future.

For the past six months, we’ve enjoyed our highest marks for site reliability and stability ever: at least 99.96% and often 99.99%. In simpler terms, this means that in an average 24-hour period, twitter.com has been stable and available to everyone for roughly 23 hours, 59 minutes and 40-ish seconds. Not today though.

We know how critical Twitter has become for you — for many of us. Every day, we bring people closer to their heroes, causes, political movements, and much more. One user, Arghya Roychowdhury, put it this way:

OMG..twitter was down....closest thing to living without oxygen for most of us....

— arghya roychowdhury (@arghya_rc) June 21, 2012

It’s imperative that we remain available around the world, and today we stumbled. For that we offer our most sincere apologies and hope you’ll be able to breathe easier now.

- Mazen Rawashdeh, VP, Engineering (@mazenra)

When you visit a Twitter user’s profile, you may want to see his or her original Tweets rather than their conversations. Then again, you may enjoy seeing the back-and-forth exchanges they have with other Twitter users. Now you can have it both ways.

When you visit the profiles of verified accounts, such as @bubbawatson, @NASCAR or @Pepsi, by default you will see their timeline of Tweets without replies: that is, you won’t see Tweets that begin with an @username. If you’d like to see all Tweets including replies, you can easily select “All” above the Tweets timeline on these profile pages.

This simplified profile, which we’re rolling out to verified accounts over the coming weeks, makes it easier to understand what kind of content the user shares on Twitter, and what Tweets you’ll see if you follow them. (Remember that replies on Twitter begin with an @username and are only seen by people who follow both the Tweet author and the @username at the beginning of the Tweet.)

Now you can quickly find out what your favorite musicians, athletes and brands are saying and doing, even if they frequently reply to others. And you can also continue to discover great moments on Twitter like when @MollyRingwald and @SalmanRushdie discussed following one another on Twitter.

-Michael Sippey, Director, Product Team (@sippey)

Twitter lets you peek in on the conversations you might not otherwise be privy to. Athletes watching a top sporting event, stars celebrating their own at an awards show, or an entirely unexpected interaction between well-moneyed men.

This week we wanted to share with you a few of the real-time conversations that some well-known folks have had about major events in their worlds. Not just a delightfully unexpected interaction between a rapper and a businessman, but also basketball stars, country musicians and baseball players.

Just a few weeks ago was this great, brief little dialogue between rapper Drake and Texas energy man T. Boone Pickens. In years past, had these two ever even crossed paths, we would have been extremely lucky to read about it in a Tom Wolfe essay. More likely, we’d never hear about it all. Today, on Twitter, their conversation is not only enabled, but shared with millions in real time.

The first billion is a helluva lot harder RT @Drake: The first million is the hardest.
— T. Boone Pickens (@boonepickens) May 31, 2012

The NBA Finals
As the Thunder and the Heat duke it out on the court, they’re encouraged on Twitter by athletes from across a wide range of sports — including by two NFL players who share a pro-Heat moment.

Will where the hell you been... Heat got this big bruh RT @iWillSmith: @ochocinco Who you got Chad? #NBAFINALS
— Chad Ochocinco (@ochocinco) June 15, 2012

The CMT Awards
The stars of country music were out in force and tweeting with wild abandon as they celebrated their own and brought fans backstage.

Bout to perform on the nationwide stage at the #CMTawards twitter.com/KipMooreMusic/…
— Kip Moore (@KipMooreMusic) June 7, 2012

The 22nd no-hitter in Major League Baseball
Matt Cain pitched MLB’s 22nd no-hitter in San Francisco and his teammates and players around the league were full-throated in their support.

Congrats my friend and teammate Matt Cain. Perfection! Amazing. Had one of the best seats in the house. So honored!!!
— Jeremy Affeldt (@JeremyAffeldt) June 14, 2012

Posted by Andrew Fitzgerald, Manager, Editorial Programming (@magicandrew)

Starting today, you can discover more interactive experiences inside any Tweet on twitter.com and mobile.twitter.com. When you expand Tweets containing links to partner websites, you can now see content previews, view images, play videos and more.

You’ve probably expanded Tweets before to play videos from YouTube or see photos from Instagram. Now, a diverse and growing group of new partners like the The Wall Street Journal, Breaking News, and TIME also deliver rich content inside Tweets containing a link to those websites.

It’s easier than ever to discover breaking news and bylines. When you expand a Tweet linking to a news article by The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle or Der Spiegel Online, you can see a preview with the headline, the introduction and sometimes the Twitter accounts of the publisher and writer. You can continue to read the article, follow these accounts, and reply, favorite or retweet the Tweet.

You can also see exclusive photos from inside the WWE ring, or images from sources like BuzzFeed and TMZ.

You can even watch moments from your favorite television shows like BET’s 106 & Park and play video from partners like Lifetime and Dailymotion.

This easy new way to discover content from the web begins rolling out to everyone on twitter.com and mobile.twitter.com starting today, and it’s coming soon to Twitter for iPhone and Twitter for Android.

- Michael Sippey, Director, Product Team (@sippey)

Which hashtag are you: #ThunderUp or #LETSGOHEAT? The NBA Finals start tonight (9pm ET on ABC) between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Miami Heat, and Twitter will be your courtside seat for all the action.

We’ve assembled an all-star roster of not one, not two, not three... but thirteen pro athletes, coaches, and super-fans to tweet their color commentary throughout the Finals:

@coachmiles - Nebraska men’s basketball head coach
@cliffavril - defensive end for the Detroit Lions
@TToliver80 - wide receiver for the Detroit Lions
@KButter5 - NBA draft prospect from the University of North Carolina
@JeffGordonweb - 4-Time NASCAR Cup Series Champion
@Niles_Paul84 - wide receiver for the Washington Redskins
@StayingInMyLane - cornerback for the San Francisco 49ers
@MAnderson_95 - defensive end for the Buffalo Bills
@arielmeredith - Sports Illustrated swimsuit model
@amoultrie - NBA draft prospect from Mississippi State University
@BrandonSpikes55 - linebacker for the New England Patriots
@adampally - comedian currently on ABC’s Happy Endings
@JasonTaylor - retired Miami Dolphins player

Each game will feature a different starting lineup, and we’re planning on adding a few more surprise folks, so keep an eye on this list during the games to see what everyone’s say.

Players from @MiamiHEAT and @OKCThunder have also been tweeting their journey to the Finals:

Western Conference Champions!! Going to the @NBA Finals, yessir!instagr.am/p/Lj3SoxTUJq/

— Serge Ibaka (@sergeibaka9) June 7, 2012

We have spirit!!! socialcam.com/s/40jT2CBH

— Shane Battier (@ShaneBattier) June 5, 2012

Man. Practice was a beast. We def got better today.

— James Harden (@JHarden13) June 9, 2012

Plenty of other NBA stars have been tweeting throughout the playoffs as avid fans:

OKC VS MIA FOR THE @nba WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP...as a fan it doesn't get much better! #nbaplayoffs

— Anthony Tolliver (@ATolliver44) June 10, 2012

This game has u on the edge of ur seat don't it?

— Roy Hibbert (@Hoya2aPacer) June 10, 2012

Dwayne Wade tough shot making ability is ridiculous lol

— Jodie Meeks (@Jmeeks20) June 10, 2012

And of course, don’t forget to share your own team spirit and color commentary with #Finals.

Posted by Omid Ashtari, Sports & Entertainment Team (@omid)

Trends help you discover the emerging topics people are talking about on Twitter. You can see these topics as a worldwide list, or select one of more than 150 locations. In order to show emerging topics that matter more to you, today we’re improving our algorithms to tailor Trends based on your location and who you follow on Twitter.

These Trends lists are tailored for you by default on twitter.com and mobile apps like Twitter for iPhone and Twitter for Android. If you don’t wish to see tailored Trends, but instead want to see a more general list of Trends, just change your location on twitter.com. Of course, anytime you want a glimpse into the conversations that are happening on Twitter around the world, you can always select individual countries and cities to see Trends in those locations. Look out for tailored Trends as they roll out gradually starting today.

- Sara Mauskopf, Product Manager (@sm)

“The city where we have started and grown will remain our future home.” That’s what we said about 14 months ago when we announced that we were maintaining our roots in San Francisco.

Twitter was born in the City by the Bay, and we’re grateful to Mayor Ed Lee, the Board of Supervisors (especially Supervisors Jane Kim and David Chiu), the Office of Economic and Workforce Development, and the Shorenstein Company for helping us expand locally.

Now our new space is ready, and we’re on the move to Market Square. We’re especially pleased to benefit from the considerable effort Shorenstein has taken to revitalize not only a beautiful landmark property, but a corner of the City that had fallen on hard times.

Among other things, we’re looking forward to meeting our new neighbors. We aim to be a friend and good citizen to the many wonderful social service, arts and charitable organizations based here, and to do our part in renewing an historic — and newly promising — area.

If you’d like to know more about our new neighborhood, an initiative called Creative Currency (@cr8c) is bringing together developers, designers, and other urban revitalizers to support the community organizations that give the Mid-Market District a lot of its heart.

And now, back to nesting.

— Gabriel Stricker (@gabrielstricker), VP Communications

This weekend, Twitter will take you onto the track, into the pit, and among the crowd at the Pocono 400 with twitter.com/#NASCAR. You’ll discover the best Tweets, photos and perspectives from NASCAR drivers and their families, crews, commentators, celebrities and fans – all in a single timeline. You’ll also discover the #NASCAR page when you search or click #NASCAR on twitter.com or mobile.twitter.com.

Throughout the weekend – but especially during the race – a combination of algorithms and curation will surface the most interesting Tweets to bring you closer to all of the action happening around the track, from the garage to the victory lane.

Anyone watching the Pocono 400 on Sunday -- even if you’re not a current Twitter user -- can visit twitter.com/#NASCAR watch the race unfold from every angle, and get insider access to all the places the cameras can’t take you. For example, teams will update you with information about how their car is performing in the race and what their strategy will be when they come into pit road. You’ll also see photos from the pit and read what the drivers and spotters are saying in the heat of the moment.

Alan makes the call to bring #JeffGordon back to pit road to get another set of fresh tires under caution. #NASCAR #Team24
— Jeff Gordon (@JeffGordonWeb) June 3, 2012

Ever wonder how they get a water bottle to @KyleBusch , now you know. #NASCAR twitter.com/TheKBshow/stat…
— Ryan: #KBShow (@TheKBshow) May 28, 2012

You can visit twitter.com/#NASCAR now to find out what’s happening ahead of the Pocono 400 Presented by #NASCAR. Leading up to the race, you’ll discover how the drivers are doing in training... or @JimmieJohnson’s style when he’s not behind the wheel:

Over the past six years, the world has become familiar with a little blue bird. The bird is everywhere, constantly associated with Twitter the service, and Twitter the company.

Starting today you’ll begin to notice a simplified Twitter bird. From now on, this bird will be the universally recognizable symbol of Twitter. (Twitter is the bird, the bird is Twitter.) There’s no longer a need for text, bubbled typefaces, or a lowercase “t” to represent Twitter.


Our new bird grows out of love for ornithology, design within creative constraints, and simple geometry. This bird is crafted purely from three sets of overlapping circles — similar to how your networks, interests and ideas connect and intersect with peers and friends. Whether soaring high above the earth to take in a broad view, or flocking with other birds to achieve a common purpose, a bird in flight is the ultimate representation of freedom, hope and limitless possibility.

To learn more about our new trademark, visit the Twitter brand resources page. You’ll find updated guidelines, new image downloads — everything you need to start using it immediately.

Thank you for flying with us.

Doug Bowman, Creative Director (@stop)

Early on, the Internet was built on people trusting people. When it was first deployed as the ARPANET, the operating environment was such that the users could just trust the network. Obviously, much has changed, but not our need to trust the Internet — it just takes a lot more effort now.

The Online Trust Alliance (OTA), a global non-profit that works to enhance online trust across the entire ecosystem, encourages online services to develop comprehensive trust programs. Every year, the OTA issues an Online Trust Scorecard recognizing companies and services that have adopted key technologies to help protect users’ privacy and identity from abuse.

We’re very pleased that this year the OTA has recognized Twitter as a service that has scored high marks in all the measures they evaluate, and therefore has added us to their Honor Roll.

In its evaluation process, the OTA looks at a number of technical and policy measures that include:

• EV Certs. Think of Extended Validation certificates as the Verified Profile for websites. They help web users know they’re on the real site and not an impostor or spoof site. Take a look at your browser bar when you visit twitter.com. See that green highlight? That’s the way you know you are on the real Twitter site. Always look for this when surfing to twitter.com.
• Always-On HTTPS. Take another look at the browser bar. That “s” after the “http” means we’ve turned on encryption between the web browser and Twitter. This makes it more difficult for third party attackers to eavesdrop on your activity. 
• Email Authentication. Similar to what EV certs provide to websites, email authentication enables ISPs and Inbox providers to verify that messages from a sender are indeed from the that sender. We include email authentication on all email we send so that ISPs can be certain they are genuine Twitter messages. We’re very pleased to receive this recognition from the OTA. You can find out more about implementing OTA trust and security measures in this resource section. 

Posted by Bob Lord, Head of Security - @boblord

MTV Movie Awards
Sunday, June 3rd at 9pm ET / 8pm CT / 9pm PT on MTV

When you watch an awards show, you’re bound to hear “Of course, I’d like to thank my fans!” — and on Sunday night, those words will have new meaning, powered by a Tweet.

The MTV Movie Awards is offering its first-ever live social voting category for one of the night’s coolest categories: Best Hero. All votes are being cast by fans, and only through Twitter. MTV has created special voting hashtags for you to pick your favorite heroic character. They’ll tally the Tweets with each hashtag and announce the results live during the show.

Cast your vote here, or by tweeting:

• #votepotter to vote for Harry from “Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2” 
• #votekatniss to vote for Katniss Everdeen from “The Hunger Games” 
• #votethor to, well, vote for Thor from “Thor” 
• #votecaptain to vote, yes, for Captain America from “Captain America” 
• #votejenko to vote for Jenko from “21 Jump Street”

You may even get your very own thank-you from one your heroes:

Thanks! RT @fatmaalhabtoor: I voted for Best Cast #movieawards 21 jump street @channingtatum Awesome crew!! mtv.com/ontv/movieawar…

— Channing Tatum (@channingtatum) May 24, 2012

The rest of the conversation leading up to and during the show will be at #movieawards. You can find the nominees on this list, and follow their big night.

CMT Music Awards 
Wednesday, June 6th at 8pm ET/ 7pm CT/ 8pm PT on CMT 

Movie stars don’t have a corner on awards fun! On Wednesday June 6th, the biggest country stars will head to the CMT Music Awards, and they want to bring you along. Follow along here with the great lineup of artists who will be live-tweeting the show:

• Lauren Alaina (@Lauren_Alaina) 
• Jake Owen (@jakeowen)
• Kellie Pickler (@kelliepickler)
• Darius Rucker (@dariusrucker) 
• Thomas Rhett Akins (@ThomasRhett) 
• Edens Edge (@edensedge)
• The Farm (@TheFarmMusic)
• Jana Kramer (@kramergirl)
• Cody Alan (@cmtcody) 
• Evan Farmer (@EvanFarmer)
• Katie Cook (@TheKatieCook)
• Steve Austin (@steveaustinBSR)
• Ronnie Dunn (@RonnieDunn) 
• Little Big Town (@LBTmusic)

You can also keep up with the #CMTawards hashtag and the folks on this country music list to get even more access to everything that goes down at the show. Here’s a preview of what’s in store:

RETWEET to WIN!Wanna see #RedSoloCup live & up close?I've got 2 PARTY PIT tix for #CMTawards on 6/6.#tobykeith #beersago @FollowCMT

— Toby Keith (@TobyKeithMusic) May 24, 2012

Awards shows are such a fun time to be on Twitter. You can follow all the unpredictable outcomes (and unpredictable antics) right alongside the stars and all the other viewers, and get unparalleled behind-the-scenes access. We’re excited to tune into both of these shows next week, and see what all of you have to say as they unfold.

And of course — we’d like to thank our fans.

Posted by Grace Chu Lee, TV Partnerships Team (@gracelee)here