Tomorrow at 2pm Eastern Time, the White House will hold its first Twitter Town Hall, and United States President Barack Obama will answer Twitter users’ questions about the American economy — live at askobama.twitter.com.

On Twitter you can find real-time conversations and information about every subject imaginable from across the world, including robust debate about the economy. In fact, a study announced today by Salesforce.com's Radian6 found that financial security is one of the most frequent topics of political conversation on Twitter. Tomorrow’s Town Hall is an invitation from the White House for anyone on Twitter to participate in an open exchange about the national and global economic issues facing the United States.

Questions addressed during the Town Hall will be selected both in advance and in real-time during the event. To narrow down the list of popular, relevant questions to ask on behalf of Twitter users, we’re doing the following:

• We’ve partnered with Mass Relevance to curate, visualize and integrate conversations for the event.
• Algorithms behind Twitter search will identify the Tweets that are most engaged with via Retweets, Favorites and Replies.
• A team of seasoned Twitter users with experience discussing the economy will help flag questions from their communities through retweets.

To have your voice heard, tweet your questions on the economy and be sure to include the hashtag #AskObama.  You can track the conversation in three great ways: Watch the event live at http//askobama.twitter.com,  follow live Tweets from @townhall, or search the hashtag #AskObama.

Halfway through 2011, users on Twitter are now sending 200 million Tweets per day. For context on the speed of Twitter’s growth, in January of 2009, users sent two million Tweets a day, and one year ago they posted 65 million a day.

For perspective, every day, the world writes the equivalent of a 10 million-page book in Tweets or 8,163 copies of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Reading this much text would take more than 31 years and stacking this many copies of War and Peace would reach the height of about 1,470 feet, nearly the ground-to-roof height of Taiwan’s Taipei 101, the second tallest building in the world.


A billion Tweets are sent every five days. What’s in them? Everything about every topic imaginable – whether it’s a unique bird’s-eye view of the Shuttle launch as seen from an airplane window or cheers of support for soccer teams in this year’s Champions League tournament. Using Twitter helped a homeless man reunite with his daughter, sent two Cincinnati Reds fans to spring training on a player’s dime, and even helped residents of a small city in Korea find fresh water after its supply was cut off.

And, here are the top Trending Topics for the first half of 2011, divided into the two most popular categories:

World events/News

1. AH1N1 - Swine Flu
2. Mubarak - former Egyptian President
3. Easter - Christian holiday
4. Cairo - capital of Egypt
5. #prayforjapan - sentiment following the March earthquake and tsunami
6. Chernobyl - site of nuclear disaster in 1986
7. Libia/Libya - site of an ongoing civil war
8. Fukushima - Japanese nuclear power plant
9. William & Kate - Newly-named Duke and Duchess of Cambridge
10. Gadafi - Libyan political leader

Pop culture

1. Rebecca Black - pop singer
2. Femme Fatale - newly-released Britney Spears album
3. Charlie Sheen - actor
4. #tigerblood - hashtag popularized by Charlie Sheen
5. Nate Dogg - rapper
6. Anderson Silva - Brazilian mixed martial artist
7. Tom & Jerry - famous cartoon
8. Mumford & Sons - British rock band
9. Bieber alert - referring to artist Justin Bieber
10. Queen Gaga - referring to artist Lady Gaga

During major events, people use Twitter to share news and thoughts with friends, family and followers around the world. Messages originating in one place are quickly spread across the globe through Retweets, @replies and Direct Messages. We see this behavior during everything from sporting events like the World Cup to widely-televised news events like the royal wedding, and also in the face of major disasters like the March 11 earthquake in Japan, where the volume of Tweets sent per second spiked to more than 5,000 TPS five separate times after the quake and ensuing tsunami. The videos below illustrate what this global flow of information looks like.

Personal messages
On Twitter, we saw a 500 percent increase in Tweets from Japan as people reached out to friends, family and loved ones in the moments after the earthquake. The video below shows the volume of @replies traveling into and out of Japan in a one-hour period just before and then after the earthquake. Replies directed to users in Japan are shown in pink; messages directed at others from Japan are shown in yellow.



Spread of information
The clip below displays worldwide retweets of Tweets originating in Japan for one hour after the earthquake. Senders’ original Tweets are shown in red; Tweets retweeted by their followers in the hour after the event are displayed in green.

We’ve been working on a bunch of features to make Twitter easier to use. Today, we’re releasing something that many of you have been asking for – automatic link shortening on Twitter.com.

How does it work?
Just paste a link of any length into the Tweet box on Twitter.com. After you’ve composed your Tweet and you hit the “Tweet” button, we’ll shorten the link so that it only takes up 19 characters.

What’s in it for me?
Sharing links on Twitter.com is now simple and instant. Plus, since we show a shortened version of the original link, people will know which site the link points to. This service also increases security. If users click links that are reported as malicious, we direct them to a page that warns them.

What if I want analytics for my links?
You can continue to use your favorite third-party link shortening services.

Visit our support page if you want to learn more.

Starting today, Twitter will be available in Brazilian Portuguese. After adding the language to our translation center, it was fully translated in only three days, making this translation project Twitter’s fastest yet.

Brazilians have embraced Twitter as a way to keep up what’s happening both locally and globally. When severe flooding hit north of Rio de Janeiro earlier this year, Brazilians used Twitter to organize disaster relief efforts, share details on how to donate money and supplies, and call for medical assistance in affected neighborhoods. In Brazil’s most recent presidential elections, all three candidates (@dilmabr, @silva_marina, @joseserra_) used Twitter to promote their campaigns, interacting directly with supporters and answering their questions. And when one man couldn’t get a customer service response after he purchased a defective refrigerator, he posted his complaint on Twitter, including the name of the store. Other users rallied behind his cause, causing the store’s name to trend for four days — eventually ending with a brand new replacement refrigerator.

To change your language to Brazilian Portuguese, visit the settings page on twitter.com. Then, browse interesting Brazilian accounts and follow those that suit your interests. Here are a few suggestions to get you started:

• @blogplanalto: Blog do Planalto tweets official news from Brazilian President @dilmabr and the presidential palace.
• @HuckLuciano: Luciano Huck, a TV personality, shares news and commentary on everything from sports to major world events.
• @EikeBatista: Eike Bastista, a businessman and entrepreneur, focuses on the economy and business news.
• @Njr92: Neymar Júnior, a young and extremely talented soccer player for Santos, celebrates his team’s victories.
• @PretaMaria: Preta Gil, a singer, responds to fans and tweets about her career, current projects, and, as the daughter of a former Minister of Culture, political and cultural news.

In addition to twitter.com, mobile.twitter.com and Twitter for Android have also been translated. We’re working to support Portuguese in other mobile applications soon. Portuguese SMS commands and replies are supported by Nextel and TIM.

For official updates and news from Twitter for Portuguese, follow @twitter_pt, and for support, @ajuda. Obrigado aos nossos tradutores — não fique de fora!

Twitter has always been the best way to instantly share whatever is happening around you, and everything you're interested in, anywhere you are. And today we're working with Apple to make sharing on Twitter even easier: Twitter is built right into iOS 5, coming soon to iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices worldwide.

This means that you’ll be able to sign in to your Twitter account once and then tweet with a single tap from Twitter-enabled apps, including Apple’s apps—Camera, Photos, Safari, Contacts, YouTube, and Maps. And developers of all of your favorite apps can easily take advantage of the single sign-on capability, letting you tweet directly from their apps too.

Building Twitter into iOS 5 truly creates the easiest way to share everything that’s happening in your world. Take a picture, tap “Tweet”. Tweeting has never been simpler.

Twitter brings the most meaningful information in the world right to your pocket. And, we're constantly working on ways to make that even better.

One good search can take you #anywhere.

Today we're starting to roll out a completely new version of Twitter search. Not only will it deliver more relevant Tweets when you search for something or click on a trending topic, but it will also show you related photos and videos, right there on the results page. It's never been easier to get a sense of what's happening right now, wherever your curiosity takes you.

And if you use this new version of Firefox with Twitter, you can type a #hashtag or @username directly into the address bar to go right to a search results page (try #idol) or someone's profile page (like @nba). Simple.

140 characters, now worth 1,000 words.

Millions of people share photos on Twitter every day. We're going to make that easier than ever. Over the next several weeks, we'll be releasing a feature to upload a photo and attach it to your Tweet right from Twitter.com. And of course, you'll soon be able to easily do this from all of our official mobile apps. A special thanks to our partner Photobucket for hosting these photos behind the scenes.

For users without smartphones, we're working with mobile carriers around the world so you can also send photos via text message (MMS). Share what's happening in your world, anywhere you are.

We're really excited about our new search and photos experiences and can't wait for you to try them. We believe both make a huge difference in making the world feel even smaller.

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.

(Photo source)

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.