Twitter’s new ‘do

Unless you’ve been completely distracted by the fresh spring air this week, you probably noticed something interesting happening on Twitter (beyond the usual barrage of interesting updates from all your favorite microblogging tweeps, that is). Twitter has a whole new look!

Twitter’s new look seems to be for all those Facebook users who just can’t get acclimated to the look and feel of Twitter. But, it’s more than just that. Here are a few of the new features that I’m most excited about:

Larger header and profile photos

As we’ve been saying, visual elements online are big. Literally. No more squinting to see that company logo profile picture; it just got bigger. The header photo now stretches across the full screen, much like the Facebook Cover photo.

Photos and videos you’ve posted are now aggregated into one place and easy to find right under your header photo instead of tucked into the left-hand sidebar.

Out with the old:

In with the new:

Pinnable tweets and font size variation

New Twitter features allow you to spotlight the best content. Got something particularly important or clever to share that you don’t want to get lost in your tweet stream? Now you can pin that tweet to the top of your feed so it’s the first tweet visitors will see no matter what your last one was.

To pin a tweet, simply click the ellipses in the bottom menu of each tweet and select the “Pin to your profile page” option from the drop-down menu.

Twitter also recognizes that some tweets get more attention than others: replies, retweets, favorites, etc. Now, those tweets show up in a bigger font so they stand out in your feed.

Following page

Perhaps my favorite update is the new following page. It’s gone from a simple list to what looks more like a Pinterest pinboard. Not only does it allow you to get a better look at the accounts you’re following, but it also clearly shows if those accounts are following back, something I used to only see if I logged in on an iPad.

Full disclosure, I much prefer Twitter to Facebook for personal use, so when I heard that Twitter was rolling up updates to make it more like Facebook, I was disappointed. However, after converting to the new layout and functionality, I’m excited about the changes. What do you think?