header has a Twitter logo on the left and a list of links on the right, which appears on all Twitter pages. Those links’ names describe where they take you:
Home: Your Home screen. Clicking on the Twitter logo at left also takes you to your Home screen.
Profile: Your Profile page.
Find People: The people search tool.
Settings: Where you can configure your Twitter account (see Chapter 2).
Help: FAQs and support.
Sign Out: Exactly what you think it is — signing out of your Twitter account.
Figure 3-1: The Twitter Home screen, where you’ll spend a lot of time.
Twitter is a living Web application. Its interface changes from time to time, so if you can’t find something immediately, it’s likely taken on a different name or moved to a different location on the interface. For up-to-date information about what’s going on with Twitter, visit the company’s blog ( http://blog.twitter.com ).
The sidebar
The area on the right side of most Twitter.com screens (Home, Profile, Replies) is called the sidebar. It’s both a reference for what you’re looking at in the main content area and a controller for the Web site, and it’s configured a little differently in each view. Here’s a breakdown of what’s on the sidebar. Except where noted, this description applies to the sidebar on your Home screen:
Your information: Your avatar picture and username. When you’re logged in to Twitter and on your Home screen, you’ll see only your avatar and username. Your Name, Location, Web, or Bio appear only on your Profile page. Click your avatar, the Profile link, or any @username link for your name to see your Profile page.
Your stats: Your following and follower counts and the number of updates you’ve posted, followed by a box that displays definitions of various Twitter related words, tools, and services.
Your communications: @username is a link to your mentions (all the tweets posted by other people that either mention you or are replies to you), and underneath it you will find your Direct Messages, and Favorites.
For more on using favorites, see the section “Playing (Twitter) Favorites,” later in this chapter.
Your searches: Next is the Search text box, followed by several sections that you can expand to a bigger view or shrink down to a single line by clicking a down or side arrow in a small circle to the right of each heading. As soon as you save a search to refer to it later, Saved Searches becomes the first of these sections.
Trending Topics: Trending Topics shows you the most commonly tweeted words and hashtags at any given time. The Trending Topics view is a surprisingly powerful peek at what is going on in the world (at least, the world according to twitterers) at any given moment.
Your community: Followingis the last section on the sidebar, and it shows a grid of the avatar photos of those you follow (or a random sampling of them if you follow more than it can display).
Your community: A grid that shows a number of avatars from the roster of other Twitter users you follow.
The “What are you doing?” box
Directly atop the wide left column, you find a box in which you can post your latest update. If you continually use Twitter’s Web interface to post updates, you’ll become very well acquainted with that box. (We go over how to update without using Twitter’s update box in Chapter 8.)
You’ve probably noticed a light-gray 140 sitting on top of the upper-right portion of the update box. While you type in your message, that number decreases, letting you know how many more characters you can type before you go over the limit. When you get to 19 characters remaining, the number turns burgundy, and when you get to 9 characters remaining, the number turns red; if you go over 140 characters, the number starts counting into the negatives. If you can’t click the Update button, you’ve likely gone over the limit, so be succinct!
As soon as you type a new tweet and click the Update button, your
Home: Your Home screen. Clicking on the Twitter logo at left also takes you to your Home screen.
Profile: Your Profile page.
Find People: The people search tool.
Settings: Where you can configure your Twitter account (see Chapter 2).
Help: FAQs and support.
Sign Out: Exactly what you think it is — signing out of your Twitter account.
Figure 3-1: The Twitter Home screen, where you’ll spend a lot of time.
Twitter is a living Web application. Its interface changes from time to time, so if you can’t find something immediately, it’s likely taken on a different name or moved to a different location on the interface. For up-to-date information about what’s going on with Twitter, visit the company’s blog ( http://blog.twitter.com ).
The sidebar
The area on the right side of most Twitter.com screens (Home, Profile, Replies) is called the sidebar. It’s both a reference for what you’re looking at in the main content area and a controller for the Web site, and it’s configured a little differently in each view. Here’s a breakdown of what’s on the sidebar. Except where noted, this description applies to the sidebar on your Home screen:
Your information: Your avatar picture and username. When you’re logged in to Twitter and on your Home screen, you’ll see only your avatar and username. Your Name, Location, Web, or Bio appear only on your Profile page. Click your avatar, the Profile link, or any @username link for your name to see your Profile page.
Your stats: Your following and follower counts and the number of updates you’ve posted, followed by a box that displays definitions of various Twitter related words, tools, and services.
Your communications: @username is a link to your mentions (all the tweets posted by other people that either mention you or are replies to you), and underneath it you will find your Direct Messages, and Favorites.
For more on using favorites, see the section “Playing (Twitter) Favorites,” later in this chapter.
Your searches: Next is the Search text box, followed by several sections that you can expand to a bigger view or shrink down to a single line by clicking a down or side arrow in a small circle to the right of each heading. As soon as you save a search to refer to it later, Saved Searches becomes the first of these sections.
Trending Topics: Trending Topics shows you the most commonly tweeted words and hashtags at any given time. The Trending Topics view is a surprisingly powerful peek at what is going on in the world (at least, the world according to twitterers) at any given moment.
Your community: Followingis the last section on the sidebar, and it shows a grid of the avatar photos of those you follow (or a random sampling of them if you follow more than it can display).
Your community: A grid that shows a number of avatars from the roster of other Twitter users you follow.
The “What are you doing?” box
Directly atop the wide left column, you find a box in which you can post your latest update. If you continually use Twitter’s Web interface to post updates, you’ll become very well acquainted with that box. (We go over how to update without using Twitter’s update box in Chapter 8.)
You’ve probably noticed a light-gray 140 sitting on top of the upper-right portion of the update box. While you type in your message, that number decreases, letting you know how many more characters you can type before you go over the limit. When you get to 19 characters remaining, the number turns burgundy, and when you get to 9 characters remaining, the number turns red; if you go over 140 characters, the number starts counting into the negatives. If you can’t click the Update button, you’ve likely gone over the limit, so be succinct!
As soon as you type a new tweet and click the Update button, your
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