Twitter turns 6 years old
March 21 marked the 6th anniversary of Twitter’s founder, Jack Dorsey, sending the first tweet:
just setting up my twttr
— Jack Dorsey (@jack) March 21, 2006
Twitter has come quite a long way since that one tweet and . Here’s what Twitter is like now:
- There are now 500 million users, with Twitter reporting that there are 140 million active users (a special number for Twitter since tweets contain 140 characters or less)
- 340 million tweets are sent each day, meaning 1 billion tweets are sent every three days. It took Twitter 3 years, 2 months, and 1 day to reach the first billion tweets
New study looks at Twitter and the stock market
There have been many studies and claims about Twitter being able to “predict the future”. People have looked at how it can be used in elections, entertainment awards, and more. A recent study conducted at University of California Riverside looked for correlations between what was being discussed on Twitter and the stock market. It turns out, there is:
“The more a facets on which a company is being discussed, the stronger that company performs in the stock market. If a discussion about company centers around only a small number of news items or discussion topics, its stock underperforms.”
A four-month trial was conducted by professor Vagelis Hristidis and a team of computer engineers and scientists. Hristidis is still puzzled as to why Twitter can help predict the stock market, but according to Mashable, it’s been hypothesized that the bad news that receives lots of attention on social media is the same bad news that can drive a stock’s price down.
Twitter users want #Justice4Trayvon
On February 26, Florida teen Trayvon Martin was shot dead by a neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, who says he was acting in self-defense. Although it has been widely talked about on social media for weeks, the awareness and support has become much more widespread recently.
Celebrities as well as the general public are standing up for Trayvon using hashtags such as #STOPZIMMERMAN, #Justice4Trayvon, and #WeAreTrayvonMartin.
Internet users are also responding to FOX correspondent Geraldo Rivera saying that the hoodie Trayvon was wearing is as responsible for his death as George Zimmerman is by posting pictures of themselves in hoodies. Lebron James tweeted this picture of Miami Heat players in their hoodies, and Dwyane Wade changed his Twitter avatar to a picture of him bowing his head with a hood on. Other celebrities and public figures that have posted pictures include Diddy, former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, and several others.
Twitter updates TweetDeck
The first Twitter-branded version of TweetDeck has now been updated and has restored a few of the features that went missing when the app was acquired by Twitter. Users can now edit, create, and delete lists from the app itself with a “Lists” button, view in-line media previews, and “Edit and RT” has replaced the “Quote” tweet option for retweets. Additionally, Twitter introduced “Interactions” and “Activity” columns, mimicking a feature of “New New Twitter.”
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