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Twitter redesign takes a page from Facebook

Twitter is updating its user profiles to include a massive banner photo, featured tweets, and an emphasis on social engagement. The aim is a more individualized experience, but it remains to be seen how it will translate to everyday tweeting.

By Karis Hustad, Staff Writer

Twitter is rolling out an entirely redesigned webpage, but if you鈥檙e a Facebook user, it will look strikingly familiar.

Twitter announced a profile redesign on its blog Tuesday that will roll out to all of Twitter鈥檚 users in the coming weeks. The redesign includes a banner with a customizable photo option on top, similar to Facebook鈥檚 recently launched cover photo feature. It will also hinge more heavily on the social impact of each tweet, allowing users to 鈥減in鈥 one tweet to the top of their profile and feature bigger fonts on tweets that garner more social interaction.

鈥淢oment by moment, your Twitter profile shows the world who you are,鈥 Twitter says on its blog announcing the change. 鈥淪tarting today, it will be even easier (and, we think, more fun) to express yourself through a new and improved web profile.鈥

Here is what has changed. A banner photo takes up the upper third of the screen while profile pictures and the 鈥渁bout me鈥 section has been moved to the right side of the screen. A horizontal navigation bar lets users toggle between tweets, photos/videos, following, followers, and lists. Users can also choose whether they want to view just tweets, tweets with photo/video, or tweets and replies. The 鈥淲ho to follow鈥 bar and trending topics flank the right side of the timeline while a users鈥 followers, photos, and videos are on the left. Twitter didn鈥檛 mention if the primary stream of tweets would look any different after the redesign.

Timelines will no longer be just a chronological stream of 140 character messages. Users can choose one tweet to feature or 鈥減in鈥 on the top of their feed, 鈥渟o it鈥檚 easy for your followers to see what you鈥檙e all about,鈥 says Twitter. Tweets with more engagement will appear larger on timelines.

So far, the change has only been rolled out to a select group of users, including First Lady Michelle Obama, actress Kerry Washington, and musician John Legend, among others. New users will start with the new profile design.

The profiles that Twitter has featured with the change are public figures, which make it difficult to predict what the changes will look like for average users.聽@ZacEfron pinned a tweet about his new film at the top of his feed and @weezer featured one from their latest music video shoot, both for obvious promotional benefit. The same goes for journalist @CaseyNewton, who聽pinned a recent article he wrote on Mozilla's CEO. It isn鈥檛 clear what the average tweeter would use this space for, other than an extended 鈥渁bout me鈥 section.聽

The response on Twitter was mixed, with many commenting on the striking similarity to Facebook鈥檚 layout. Others say the new design provides more room for individuality: 鈥淭ake advantage of updates 鈥#digitalidentity,鈥 tweeted Macalester College鈥檚 Career Development Center in Saint Paul, Minn..聽

Though it appears Twitter is taking a page from Facebook鈥檚 aesthetic, in the not-too-distant past many were commenting on how Facebook was taking a page from Twitter鈥檚 public presence and user-generated buzz with its more public privacy settings and the addition of clickable hashtags.

This is the second time this week Twitter has made headlines. On Monday, the company announced it had bought lockscreen app Cover for an undisclosed sum, likely to develop a Twitter-centric home screen for smart phones.聽