Twitter Tuesday - Twitter passes MySpace, kills Early Bird, and rolls out new website to half of users

It's been a busy week for Twitter itself, so I'll (mostly) lay off the third-party Twitter client news in this edition of Twitter Tuesday. Hit the jump for all the latest updates from Twitter -- including some hope for those of you who don't have access to the shiny new Twitter web interface yet.



Twitter Tops MySpace, Becomes Third-Busiest Social Network

According to the Wall Street Journal, Twitter has surpassed MySpace in traffic, and taken a place in the top three busiest social networking sites. Twitter's 96 million unique visitors last month (up 75% from last year!) topped MySpace's 95 million (down 17%).

Facebook is the largest social network, obviously, but what's #2? Look out, Microsoft Windows Live Profile, you're next on the big bird's hit list. (Yeah, I'm as surprised as you are, but Windows Live Profile is doing nearly 150 million uniques a month!)

Half of Twitter Users Now Have the New Twitter Web Interface

If you're still waiting for the new Twitter interface to roll out to your account, you're not alone. Only half of Twitter's userbase has the new Twitter.com so far. That has caused the other half to incessantly retweet "Retweet this if you don't have the new Twitter." Calm down, guys. You'll have it very soon!

[via TheNextWeb]

Twitter Kills Off Early Bird (Was Anyone Using It Anyway?)


Remember Twitter's special @earlybird account that offered discount deals to Twitter users? Neither do most people, and that's why Early Bird is being grounded after a series of lackluster promotions. The idea of a Twitter-branded Groupon-type site is a good one, but I think Twitter needs to put more effort into developing partnerships and being able to offer decent promotions if they want to hold anyone's attention. Early Bird currently has 230,000 followers, which is a drop in the bucket compared to the 96 million unique visitors a month I just mentioned.

Early Bird will rise again (after more research and feedback) to become Promoted Products, but there's no ETA on that launch.

Twitter's Promoted Accounts Are Almost Here

Speaking of promotions, Promoted Accounts are just around the corner on Twitter. If you want more followers, here's your chance to pay for them. Promoted Accounts will let you insert your account into Twitter's "Who To Follow" box next to real suggestions of who to follow.

The average joe on Twitter probably won't be able to afford a Promoted Account, as the Wall Street Journal reports that Twitter's previous ad service, Promoted Tweets, is already selling tweets valued at over $100,000.

[via TechCrunch]

Brizzly Adds Foursquare Support and New Retweets

Twitter-client-and-more webapp Brizzly just added some new features to its list, including Foursquare support and support for new-style "official" retweets from Twitter. This move is a bit of catchup with competitor Seesmic Web, which added Foursquare support recently as well, but isn't as pretty as Brizzly. Some of the navigation on Brizzly has changed, too -- menus are now collapsable, and the posting form stays in the top left corner as you move around to different Twitter pages.

That's the Twitter news for this week! Pop back in next week for more, including the rollout of Twitter's streams API, which should bring real-time Twitter to your favorite apps soon!

Tags: brizzly, features, newtwitter, twitter, twitter tuesday, TwitterTuesday