Posted September 16, 2010 by lifestyleworld in Tech News. Tagged: Twitter. Leave a Comment

Microblogging site Twitter will now support photos and videos shared by users directly from the Twitter homepage

The new-look Twitter.com website will feature a multimedia pane, containing videos and photos that can be viewed from within the browser while also reading tweets

The new-look Twitter.com website, which was unveiled last night, features a new viewing ‘pane’ that will display videos and photos, shared through Twitter by its users, directly within the homepage.

Previously, users had to click away from Twitter.com to view pictures and video on third-party sites, such as TwitPic or yFrog. The images and videos will be displayed alongside tweets from a user’s Twitter stream.

The new-look website, which will roll-out to users in the coming days, could help to make the Twitter.com homepage more attractive to users. Currently, many Twitter users use third-party applications, such as TweetDeck or Twitter for iPhone, to access the microblogging service. But an overhaul to the Twitter site could persuade more users to update their status and interact with other users that way.

“It’s about getting more out of Twitter in a lot less time,” said Evan Williams, Twitter’s chief executive.

Twitter has reached agreements with a number of third-party providers of Twitter photo- and video-sharing to integrate their services directly in to Twitter.com. Companies such as TwitPic, yFrog, Ustream, Vimeo and YouTube have all signed up to the service.

“Improving consumption of Twitter-based content is important not just for Twitter, but for interactive marketers as well,” said Augie Ray, social media analyst at Forrester Research.

Around 90 million tweets are sent on the microblogging service every day.