Twitter to look like Facebook

Written by

Yesterday Mashable reported that Twitter is testing a major profile redesign that looks a lot like Facebook – and Google+. A number of randomly selected users have been seeing major changes on their Twitter top being the well pronounced header that has been made to cover top of profile page from extreme left to extreme right; almost similar to Facebook’s cover photo (see first and second images below) – only that Twitter’s header covers a bigger area than Facebook’s cover photo.

After I read the Mashable’s article I thought that maybe Twitter is not really serious about making Twitter to look like Facebook but that was before I met the changes on my own Twitter Profile. When I logged into Twitter some minutes past mid-night, I was greeted by the message, “Bigger and better” and I noticed three big icons probably asking me to do one of a few options – I did not read two of them but I rushed and clicked on the one that read, “Explore your profile” and kaboom, my tweets had become giants.

Some of the things that I have noticed on the new look Twitter are:

1. Twitter header photo looks almost like Facebook’s cover photo

I think Twitter wants to make Twitter experience be more personal, engaging, and entertaining. One thing they have done is to make both profile photo and header look like Facebook’s profile picture and cover photo. Have a look at my Facebook Timeline pictures and new Twitter Profile Pictures (Photo and Header) to compare:

Facebook Timeline

Facebook Timeline

Twitter Profile

Twitter Profile

As you can notice, the design and placement of pictures on Twitter (second picture) are basically same as the pictures on Facebook. There is a slight difference though: In Facebook, the cover photo leaves side bars on either side of the screen but Twitter utilizes every single space on screen.

The other important change that Twitter has made is to increase the font size of tweets on own profile page but not on the normal Twitter feed (or what we normally call TL). The font size of own tweets at personal profile page (accessed by clicking the Me button) have been made big, way too big to be interesting (maybe it’s just me).

I did post the same tweet at Kachwanya’com’s Twitter account and on my own personal account. Have a look at the two tweets and see how they compare:

tweets

 If you look at the two pictures more carefully, you’ll notice that it is easier to read the Tweet on my personal Twitter account than you would read it from Kachwanya.com’s Twitter account. The tweet on my account also lacks the standard avi at the left of the tweet. The second important thing to notice in the two pictures is that the new look Twitter, in addition to having the standard links namely Tweets, Following, and Followers at the info panel, also has Photos and Lists as new links added. I like the idea that Lists is now easy to access.

Twitter is planning to make the aforementioned changes in a few days, weeks or months (or not at all) as an attempt to make Twitter more interesting and easier to use. Since Twitter released its fourth quarter report showing growth in revenue but no growth in user base, the company has taken steps to redesign Twitter to make it easier for users not only to find interesting discussions and topics but also to make Twitter more engaging and entertaining.

But if my taste would count, I would advise Twitter to run away from the intended changes as my Twitter profile has never looked as ugly. If they asked me in a Survey I would have said, “There is no need for Twitter to look like Facebook, we already have Facebook that majority of us don’t like anyway, we only use it more often because our friends won’t quit Facebook.”

Article Categories:
TECHNOLOGY

Comments are closed.

Shares