It's a change that many of us probably wouldn't have noticed, but soon Twitter intends to shorten its already super short tweets when you add a link into them.

According to the Twitter Developer blog, the micro-blogging platform will soon start bumping up its shortened URLs by a few characters, meaning avid Twitter users will only have around 117 characters to write something stupid and witty beside their links.

Third party apps will also be forced to adopt the new changes and although many of us won't be too upset by the reduced about of tweet space, social media companies and brands using the platform may find it annoying to reduce their content even more.

Over the past few weeks there's been a lot of tension between Twitter and Instagram, which has today culminated in a shiny new set of filters being added to the Android and iOS Twitter apps.

We've heard rumours that Twitter's been developing filters for what feels like years and this week the micro-blogging platform's official blog has revealed its been working alongside the photo editing specialists at Aviary to create a set of eight, including a couple of black and white ones and others with a vintage toy camera feel.

But that's not all, you'll also be able to crop your images and even tweak lighting and colour effects with an auto-enhance option, so those who only usually make a few basic edits to their snaps will be able to do everything they want from within the Twitter app now.

Not to be outdone, Instagram today revealed a number of updates, including a camera redesign and a new black and white filter called Willow.

As you'd expect Twitter users are praising, ranting and moaning about the site's new filters today, with some welcoming them with open arms, others using LOTS OF CAPS to say that they'll never leave their beloved Instagram and most revealing that they think it's great there's an option for filters within the Twitter app now.

Our Twitter friend @flashboy summed up everyone's sentiments pretty well:

"Pretty nice. Not as fancy/wanky as Instagram, but good for tidying up pics."

We doubt that many die-hard fans will start ditching Instagram solely for Twitter from now on, but the lack of integration between the two means that those who like to share their photos on Twitter regularly and want them to look good could now easily be swayed by these rival filters and editing features.

Other than its dedicated community of photo lovers, the only main advantage of using Instagram over Twitter is the way your photos are displayed after you've uploaded them. Although not everyone felt they were necessary, Instagram's web profiles mean snaps look great and serve as a pretty library of photos that Twitter's current media section just can't compete with. However, we imagine that'll be Twitter's next step in becoming a one-stop-shop for online photos, so watch this space.

The Pope has now got a Twitter account over at @Pontifex and will no doubt be updating us about his crazy life in Vatican City over the next few weeks.

Not only has an English Twitter profile been set up for good ol' Benedict XVI, but he's following German, Spanish, Portugese, Polish, Italian, French and Arabic accounts too, presumably so he can keep everyone updated about what him and the Catholic church are up to at any given time.

He hasn't shared anything yet, apart from a pouty Instagram photo (we're joking, obviously), but according to sources the 12th of December is the big day he'll be spamming us with all kinds of personal thoughts and feelings. We can't wait.

Follow: @Pontifex

Single guys and girls no longer meet through friends, dating sites or (god forbid) in real life, but spend most of their time finding new people, flirting and being dirtbags on Twitter, according to a new study.

The research, commissioned by discount website VoucherCodesPro.co.uk, found that out of 1,267 active and single Twitter users more than 45% admitted to using the micro-blogging platform as a way to date and flirt their geeky little asses of.

The study then delved deeper into this Twitter flirting activity (we're gonna coin it flittering, if that's OK?) and found that 66% of those who flitter do so with people they already know, but a bold (read:dirtbag) 24% reached out to those they didn't know and an embarrassing 27% even admitted to sending something a bit naughty to celebrities. Really? REALLY?

As you'd expect most of this flirting takes place in the filthy underbelly of Twitter, known officially as Direct Messaging, with 83% admitting they'd flittered privately. Out of those dirty little DMers 56% said they'd sent sexually explicit messages and hilariously 14% admitted to accidentally sending a public @ mention instead (LOLZ).

We can't say we're shocked by the stats, but do think this proves just how important it is to keep your password private and of course get out once in a while too...

The study was carried out by VoucherCodesPro.co.uk and polled 1,267 active Twitter users from across the UK.

Related: SEXTING: Are we all careless, cheating mobile phone flirts?

Twitter, the micro-blogging platform we all love to hate, has made a number of updates to the way you search for content and discover new things overnight, that you may or may not even notice.

One of the main updates has been to the way you search Twitter. Type something into the search bar and you'll now be served much better results to highlight photos, videos and news that have all been shared online. You'll also now see a grid of relevant media above the tweets, which you can see in the photo above.

Interestingly, Twitter wants you to have a better understanding of why certain tweets rank higher than others too, so if you get served a tweet you'll see more context about who favourited it or retweeted it.

There's also now a new way to share tweets directly from the Twitter.com website. You can email a tweet to anyone whether they use Twitter or not right from your stream, which could be an interesting way of getting more people involved in the social network. Or just prove to be really REALLY annoying for those who like to avoid everything social media.

[Via The Twitter Blog]

There are all kinds of things we'd love to block from Twitter, like Justin Bieber fans, shameless self promotion and of course racist propaganda. Well it looks like the guys at Twitter HQ are addressing one of our bugbears by blocking a neo-Nazi account in Germany called Besseres Hannover. Although it may make sense for offensive, racist and illegal content to be banned, the decision raises some important questions about freedom of speech online, a topic that's been in and out of the news everyday over the past few weeks.

Twitter is a private company, so although there's been an uproar about the ban the truth is the microblogging platform can really do whatever the hell it likes. In January of this year a post on the Twitter support pages explained that it may withhold content in certain countries in the future:

"Many countries, including the United States, have laws that may apply to Tweets and/or Twitter account content. In our continuing effort to make our services available to users everywhere, if we receive a valid and properly scoped request from an authorized entity, it may be necessary to reactively withhold access to certain content in a particular country from time to time."

The blocking of the Besseres Hannover account is the first time this new and controversial policy has been put in place after officials in Germany requested it be banned due to its laws about barring hate speech. Yesterday Twitter's general counsel Alex Macgillivray (@amac) tweeted about the decision:

"We announced the ability to withhold content back in Jan. We're using it now for the first time re: a group deemed illegal in Germany."

Well that all makes complete sense, right? Umm kind of. The policy that accounts and tweets may be withheld if they're considered illegal by a certain government is rather tricky and will surely put Twitter in awkward situations in the future, especially if a country is trying to silence activists or members of the public during times of revolution or political unrest.

Twitter will need to find a way to work with governments while also maintaining the trust of its users, which could work well or prove to be an impossible task.

[Via CNN]

Looking like a Pinterest for your personal and branded social media platforms, RebelMouse aims to gather most of your digital footprint in one handy place for others to see (Facebook, Twitter and Instragram for now but we expect them to tie in other channels as the platform matures).

Besides the initial questions surrounding Facebook and how its privacy settings work, this startup looks promising. Still in beta, with a growing list of tech titans and social media personalities signed up to it already, the service could just be exactly what we've been waiting for.

So what is it that could make RebelMouse the next big thing in social curation?

RebelMouse clearly got the memo that visual content is compelling. Taking the formula of bite sized posts with a header, subheader and an image (already proved popular through the success of Pinterest), you're instantly drawn into the stories or updates as you scroll through a user's profile.

To remind you of that all-important image, RebelMouse has created its own share button 'Stick it!' (like the 'Pin it' of Pinterest or 'Take it to Branch' of.. well Branch) for when you want to share a story you've stumbled across on the web.

This brings me to the next point. RebelMouse also focuses on the user-experience. Like a blog come Twitter come Facebook, it makes it very easy to (re)produce content with just a couple of clicks. Hassle-free content creation and aggregation!

From the opposite perspective, for visitors it is a great way to learn about the person or brand in one go without having to look at all three of their social streams. Who knows what you might have missed when you were busy doing other things?

You can also invite 'collaborators' to appear in your stream, which will be very handy for companies or publications where their employees' social media activity is as important as the company's.

Design wise you are fairly limited to what your profile looks like. The current minimalistic look appeals to me, but when coming out of beta and into advance mode you will be able to 'hack your own CSS for your RebelMouse site.

But how does RebelMouse plan to make any money off its free service, besides the planned personalised iOS apps? According to Mashable '"[it] hopes to monetise organically by providing businesses an e-commerce platform, allowing people such as photographers and fashion designers to sell their wares in a dynamic, visual way. Another form of monetization they plan on is sponsored content'.

A note of warning though. When you sign up to RebelMouse (using your Facebook, Twitter or Instragram log ins), you're giving it access to grab your content from these profiles. If you, like me, use social networks for different purposes - private (Facebook) and public (Twitter/Instagram) - you should perhaps think twice before granting RebelMouse access to all networks. From what I could see, it only curated my 'public' Facebook updates, but I revoked access either way just to be on the safe side.

Are you ready to be curated?

This story was first published by digital content agency Sutro Digital.

Yesterday Twitter rolled out a new redesign focused solely on photos and a number of changes have been made to the way we display our recent snaps, use them to make our profiles look better and upload them to the site.

The most noticeable change is the introduction of a new header photo (look at Red Bull's Twitter page above), which will be visible across all devices and sit at the top right hand side of profiles. Users and companies are able to upload a custom image or select a pre-made theme from the website to use instead. Although all kinds of sites and services have a top banner in this style it's no surprise a number of commentators have started making comparisons between Twitter's new header photo and Zuckerberg's cover photo already.

Background images may not look too different, but Twitter has enabled those wanting to get a little bit creative to have more control over the way it's positioned on the screen, which is great for brands and self promotion.

Finally, images that have been recently uploaded will be much more prominent on profiles and interestingly you don't have the option to upload images with their party sites like Yfrog and Twitpic anymore, you're forced to do it through Twitter and Photobucket's service.

The changes certainly look good and Twitter's Advertising Blog focuses on the way the new photo features could help companies using the micro-blogging platform enhance their brand:

"Now marketers can instantly engage Twitter users with rich images while creating a more consistent visual identity across devices."

It's interesting to see Twitter expand further than its 140 character tweets and much more into the realm of photos, forcing them to take a more prominent position on profiles and giving both brands and individuals alike more freedom to display different images in different ways.

As much as we try to embrace change here at Shiny Shiny, we do worry that added features will take something away from a service that's so popular because of its simplicity and make it more like Facebook. However, as more young people migrate away from Facebook and to Twitter (according to stats earlier in the year), it makes sense for photos to become a firm part of our Twitter experience considering mobile photography has meant they've become such a firm part of our lives.

We've had some problems viewing the new design here at Shiny Media HQ, but just make sure you have the most recent version of the app downloaded and you should see an option to get started and add in your header image if you visit Settings > Design > Customize Your Own. If you don't see that option quite yet, then just be patient.

So many of us tweet random thoughts, links and photos throughout the day, yet there's no surefire way to export all of our pointless musings or even properly search through the crazy things we've been ranting about since we first signed up to the highly addictive service.

Well enter a new iOS app called Tweet Keeper, which gives you a lot more control over your Twitter data.

Once you've downloaded the app you add in a username and it'll start collecting together old tweets, before presenting them in a list and allowing you to search through them and even export them all as a spreadsheet or plain text file if you're that interested in what you've been saying.

Unfortunately Twitter only provides access to your last 3,200 updates but for most users that's probably a big chunk of everything they've been saying. If you're a serial Twitter user like me you'd probably rather not rewind any further back to see the silly things you were moaning about well over a year ago anyway.

Once you've set up an archive for your tweets all future updates will be sent there too and interestingly you can set up seven more archives. The app page on iTunes suggests that you use that space to stay up to date with other interesting Twitter users, but we really know that it'll be a useful tool for super social media stalkers who need a crazy and reliable way to keep tabs on certain people ALL OF THE TIME.

You'll have to pay £1.49 for the Tweet Keeper app, but it actually provides a very handy service so if you want to permanently save your tweets and really care about keeping your old content safe, then it's well worth it.

Available from iTunes for £1.49.

There have been some amazing photos taken of Olympic athletes over the past week, but one camera that provides fans with a unique angle is the L2012 Pool Camera, which has been hiding inside the pool at the Aquatic Centre capturing some of the most impressive underwater moments from the games.

Not only has the camera been taking images of everything from Michael Phelps' last race to synchronised swimming heats, but it's been tweeting light-hearted updates with them too so regular fans can get in on the action, such as "Hey @MichaelPhelps. Having a good time? You want to try living down here. Get some perspective. #London2012"

Follow twitter.com/L2012PoolCam and visit the full gallery at twitter.com/L2012PoolCam/media/slideshow

Related: Photojournalist takes Olympic photos with just an iPhone 4S

[Via Digital Trends]

Even though most people loved the London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony on Friday, a number of whiny Twitter users have already begun complaining about the BBC's coverage of events. However, it seems that recent broadcasting problems could well be because people have been tweeting a little bit too much. Yes, really.

If you were watching the televised road race coverage on Saturday you may have experienced the effects of excessive tweeting first hand. Time and distance data, vital for TV audiences trying to make sense of the long-distance event, were not being transmitted as expected as local networks and GPS satellite data streams were overloaded.

An International Olympic Committee spokesman speaking to Reuters said:

"Of course, if you want to send something we are not going to say 'Don't, you can't do it', and we would certainly never prevent people.

"It's just - if it's not an urgent, urgent one, please kind of take it easy."

Not urgent? When has a tweet ever not been URGENT?

[Via Tech Digest]

After last night's spectacular opening ceremony even the most cynical characters are now excited about the Olympics (or at least they should be!). There are all kinds of ways you can keep up with the games, just check out Tech Digest's round-up of websites, TVs, apps and set top boxes, but for behind-the-scenes insight, ranting and lots of different opinions you really can't beat Twitter.

There are lots of athletes crazily tweeting away already, but here are just 20 of our top suggestions from current Olympians to former athletes and big news publications.

1. Rebecca Adlington @BeckAdlington

Follow Rebecca for behind-the-scenes tweets about what she's up to, as well as a light-hearted commentary of the games. We love the fact she got just as excited as us when the Queen and James Bond shared the screen last night and that she hasn't stopped tweeting because of the silly online trolls that have been hounding her recently.

2. Usain Bolt @usainbolt

His bio reads "The most naturally gifted athlete the world has ever seen", which may seem a little arrogant, but we're not going to argue with him. He tweets regularly, shares a lot of photos and is bound to be interesting to follow due to the fact he's set to be one of the biggest stars of London 2012.

3. Tom Daley @TomDaley1994
Lots of fun and honest tweets from the talented diver, only follow if you like exclamation marks though...

4. Lolo Jones @lolojones

The US hurdler is often cited as a great athlete to follow on Twitter because she often writes in an honest, open and laugh out loud way.

5. Michael Phelps @MichaelPhelps

US swimmer Michael Phelps tweets to his fans, his fellow athletes and shares a lot of great photos from his life and training.

6. Jessica Ennis @J_Ennis

We haven't heard from Jessica Ennis in a few days, but as she played such a huge part in the ceremony last night we'll let her off. Follow her if you're a fan and want to know what she's up to and how her training is going through her honest tweets.

7. Mark Cavendish @MarkCavendish

Cyclist Mark Cavendish shares a lot of tweets about his life and training that are often hilarious. He tends to tweet a lot of photos as well and talks candidly about how he feels before a big race.

8. Kelly Holmes @damekellyholmes

Former athlete and now Olympic ambassador Kelly Holmes is a prolific tweeter and has so far shared behind-the-scenes info, photos, facts about the games and is interacting with athletes, celebs and fans alike.

9. Matthew Pinsent @matthewcpinsent

Gold medal winner Matthew Pinsent has already been tweeting a lot about the games, sharing photos and showing his support for Team GB.

10. London 2012 @London2012

The official Twitter account for the London 2012 Olympics with a range of information, scheduling details, photos and opinions.

11. BBC 2012 @BBC2012

The Twitter account for the BBC's coverage of the games, which has so far included results, links to bigger stories and a lot of re-tweeting of other accounts, athletes and pundits.

12. David Walliams @davidwalliams

Funny man, author and all round nice guy David Walliams is a sports enthusiast and has already been tweeting a great deal about the Olympics, his opinions and the opening ceremony.

A US teen is currently facing a contempt of court charge, which could see her carry out a 180 day prison sentence, because she tweeted the names of two boys who sexually assaulted her.

Savannah Dietrich was assaulted back in August 2011 and since then the two boys pleaded guilty to sexual abuse and misdemeanor voyeurism, before striking a deal with the judge.

Although no one has been able to reveal the exact details of the deal, Dietrich and her family believe the plea bargain has been far too lenient, which led her to talk about the case publicly on Twitter in an attempt to ensure the attackers faced more serious consequences in the future.

Dietrich tweeted the names of the two boys and then said, "I'm not protecting anyone that made my life a living Hell." She's now facing the contempt charge because she violated the confidentiality of the juvenile hearing, which could now see her serve a 180 day prison sentence and pay a $500 fine.

The case has caused a huge stir and as you can imagine opinions have really been divided. There have been many professional views published online over the past few days (we don't care about the victim blaming trolls, yes, that's happening *voms*), with some saying she should never have violated the confidentiality of the court regardless of the medium and others claiming her First Amendment rights should allow her to talk about the details of the case more freely.

Dietrich's case could certainly set a precedent for any future incidents that bring freedom of speech online into question, but regardless of the outcome she's standing by her decision to name her attackers publicly, saying, "I'm at the point that if I have to go to jail for my rights, I will do it."

Related: TWITTER: So what can and can't you REALLY say online?

[Via Jezebel Via Huffington Post]

This week Twitter has rolled out a new version of both its iOS and Android application with added notifications, expanded tweets and more efficient search functionality. Here are just a few of the key features that have been added or tweaked by Larry the bird and his friends:

Twitter added expanded tweets to the web a while back, but they've now been included as part of both the iPhone and Android apps too, allowing users to view snippets of content and watch videos underneath and details of the tweet.

To take advantage of the fact we all use Twitter to moan about live TV, the micro-blogging platform has also added in extra functionality when it comes to experiencing events, presenting a dedicated page for hash tags to make it easier to follow the conversation (check out: twitter.com/hashtag/nascar).

The new apps now support push notifications for certain tweets from certain accounts, so you can get notifications from people you follow whenever they tweet or retweet. This may seem a little stalker-ish, but Sung Hu Kim, Product Manager for Spotify's Mobile team, suggests it'd be a good idea to set up these kinds of notifications for local Twitter accounts in your area in order to keep on top of the news that's relevant to you.

Twitter's Search tool has had a minor upgrade with autocomplete functionality, so lots of suggestions pop up straight away when you go to search for someone.

It hasn't been officially announced by Twitter, but a number of sources have also been commenting on the fact that there are no longer details about which client a tweet came from underneath it like they're used to be, it's just now "from Twitter". This move could just be a matter of tidying up the look of the app when there's so little space, or it could be a sneaky move from Twitter to take the focus away from other clients.

[Via Twitter Blog]

It seems the globe has been divided, either you're obsessed with Fifty Shades of Grey and spend every waking minute reading it, talking about it and fantasising that Christian Grey (the main guy) will scoop you up and do filthy things to you, or you're sick to death of hearing about it and want fans to die a slow death as you laugh at parodies.

Well if you fall into the second camp, this list is for you. Although there are hundreds of parody videos being created and eBooks being penned, we can always rely on Twitter for a good, NSFW, laugh out loud spoof, so here are our top picks of parody 50 Shades of Grey Twitter accounts:

50 Sheds of Grey (@50ShedsofGrey)

50 Sheds of Grey is definitely our favourite parody account, which like Fifty Shades of Grey is also concerned with erections, but solely of the shed-based variety.

Our favourite tweets so far:

"I was excited but nervous. I'd finally been accepted into the BDSM community - Builders, Decorators and Shed Maintenance."

"My whole body shuddered as she entered my Man Cave. I really must get a padlock for the shed door."

50ShadesofAndyGray (@50SOAndyGray)

A kinda NSFW parody account, which manages to take the mickey out of both Fifty Shades of Grey and Andy Gray, a former footballer and pundit who was sacked for making sexist comments. Expect to be amused, a bit grossed out and not at all aroused.

50 Shades of Shit (@50ShadesofShit)

This one is definitely NSFW and its bio reads "definitely not for the faint hearted". You can think of it as how the book would have turned out if Fifty Shades of Grey had been written by someone much dirtier who uses a range of crazy euphemisms for everything sex-related.

TheChristianGrey (@The_Mr_Grey)

This one is immediately not as funny, because its the parody account of the main guy from the books, Christian Grey, run by someone who clearly gets no sexual attention in real life and is loving the fact crazed fans are interacting with him. Worryingly some of the fans are talking to him as if he's real...

One of Twitter's senior engineers hinted that the micro-blogging will be making a few big changes to the way users search and discover new content over the next few days.

Pankaj Gupta (or @pankaj) wrote the tweet early this morning and said the way we search and discover new things using Twitter is "set to change forever". Wow, that sounds like a rather bold statement.

Since Gupta's tweet there's been a lot of speculation about what the new changes will entail. Will they just lead to a more relevant way of searching for interesting trends and content? Will they expand on the most recent "Discovery" feature? Or will Business Insider's assumption be right that Twitter is set to become a hell of a lot more like Flipboard?

[Via The Next Web]

Most of Twitter can be divided into three categories, social media "experts" tweeting about infographics, award ceremonies and blogger lists, Justin Bieber fans tweeting about Justin Bieber and celebrities tweeting about how awesome/boring their lives are.

Some celebrities clearly leave the tweeting to their management teams, some take to it like a duck to water and some tweet and tweet and tweet then get mad when crazy people start to respond. So mad that they throw big strops, get aggressive, start ranting (we're looking at you Kanye) or quit Twitter for good (or at least pretend to).

Here are just five sparkling celebs who threw online tantrums and decided to leave Twitter to the Justin Bieber fans, Katy Perry wannabes and marketing "gurus" at least for a few months before they came running back to the big blue bird.

[All Images via Press Association]

This week Twitter has made a huge deal about the fact it's got a new logo, which looks suspiciously, scrap that PRETTY MUCH IDENTICAL, to the original but with a neat new haircut.

In a post on Twitter's blog yesterday, the brand's Creative Director, Doug Bowman, explained that the bird has been simplified and weirdly followed with "Twitter is the bird, the bird is Twitter", which sounds rather profound, right?

Bowman (who should really have been a poet or leader of a cult) goes on to explain the thinking behind the new bird. Prepare to be blown away my friends:

"Our new bird grows out of love for ornithology, design within creative constraints, and simple geometry. This bird is crafted purely from three sets of overlapping circles -- similar to how your networks, interests and ideas connect and intersect with peers and friends. Whether soaring high above the earth to take in a broad view, or flocking with other birds to achieve a common purpose, a bird in flight is the ultimate representation of freedom, hope and limitless possibility."

However, it's not all about sweetness and light, flying through the internet and ornithology, because the Twitter Brand and Trademarks page has been beefed up a lot now the new bird has come soaring into our lives.

It all gets a little agressive to be honest and we feel like we're being told off just for imagining the Twitter bird a different colour or, god forbid, with legs that we've drawn on terribly in Photoshop. To sum up, here's our interpretation of the guidelines:

"The first rule of the new Twitter logo, is you can't really do anything to the new Twitter logo.

"The second rule of the new Twitter logo is you DEFINITELY can't add a smiley face to the new Twitter logo."

[Via The Inquirer]

We don't think we need to explain the Hashtag App TOO much to our clever little readers. It's basically a mobile app that allows you to track... you guessed it... hashtags. However, you're not just constrained to Twitter, you can track them in a simple feed from Instagram too.

The app is ideal if you're at an event, work in social mediaz and want to monitor a particular client or competition while you're on the move, or if you just have a weird obsession with something, like #sea or #puppies, then you'll ALWAYS get to peek at new content about it. Weirdo.

The app is really simple, you don't need to be logged in to Twitter or Instagram to use it, you just enter your hashtag of choice and pull down to refresh the content. If you want to look for a new one, just start again. Easy.

Available from the app store for free.

[Via TechCrunch]

Yesterday it was revealed that Twitter will be honouring requests from users who no longer want their data tracked and recorded, unlike the big boys Facebook and Google.

This week Twitter announced (shockingly in a tweet) that it's signed up to the Do Not Track initiative, which basically means users have the chance to opt out of having their data tracked, recorded or shared with third parties.

Twitter's decision to implement DNT features comes at the same time that it'll be rolling out a new personalised suggestions service. On the Twitter Blog Othman Laraki, Director of Growth and International, explains that the users Twitter recommends at the moment aren't always ideal and often focus on the most popular (and often boring) celebrities, rather than users that have the same interests as you. He wrote about the experiments for the coming months:

"The first experiment will show new users a list of accounts that we recommend you follow, alongside a timeline filled with Tweets from those accounts. If you're part of the experiment, you'll see a Twitter experience that's relevant to you right when you sign up."

That all sounds useful, but the reason Twitter has jumped on board with the DNT initiative at the same time, is that for these tailored suggestions to work, Twitter and third party websites need to be keeping a close eye on what users get up to:

"These tailored suggestions are based on accounts followed by other Twitter users and visits to websites in the Twitter ecosystem. We receive visit information when sites have integrated Twitter buttons or widgets, similar to what many other web companies -- including LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube -- do when they're integrated into websites. By recognizing which accounts are frequently followed by people who visit popular sites, we can recommend those accounts to others who have visited those sites within the last ten days."

Laraki then goes on to explain that Twitter wants users to have control over the data that's collected about them, so if you'd rather not have information about you tracked you can go ahead and change your DNT settings. But don't expect to have personalised recommendations and new "who to follow" features if you do. You can't have the best of both worlds.

What is Do Not Track?

Do Not Track (or DNT) is a privacy setting that anyone can change in their browsers.

It comes from an initiative that was born over in the US and has been endorsed by the FTC, here's a basic rundown from the Twitter Help Center about what it does:

"[It's] a simple way for users to inform integrated web services which offer content across the Internet (such as buttons, widgets, and other embedded features) that they do not want certain information about their webpage visits collected across websites when they have not interacted with that service's content on the page."

You'll be able to change your DNT settings in recent versions of Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari, which means these browsers tell the websites you visit that you don't want to be tracked.

If you're a Chrome user you can't change your DNT settings as easily (although Google allegedly promises an update in the coming months), but there's an extension you can try too.

Visit the Twitter Help Center for a more detailed how-to about DNT settings.

Visit http://donottrack.us for more information about the initiative.