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Twitter rolls out option to download tweet archive

Twitter has apparently begun rolling out a promised feature that allows users to download their entire archive of tweets.

Twitter users began tweeting last night about the appearance on a new settings feature that allows users to "Request your archive." A brief note under the new button informs users that "you can request a file containing your information, starting with your first tweet. A link will be emailed to you when the file is ready for download."

Twitter has finally provided the option to download all your tweets - twitter.com/nspeaks/status...

— Navjot Singh (@nspeaks) … Read more

Sam's Club in unintentionally hilarious Twitter exchange

If your job is to man a large company's Twitter account, it can be troubling task. It feels like you've been married to your customers for a very long time. They complain. They whine. They occasionally call you names.

Still, it's best to read what they send to you before you emit a standard reply that has been agreed by marketing, HR and a team of several cold-faced lawyers.

I mention this because of a slightly amusing exchange that crossed my Twitter feed this week. In the left corner was Sam's Club. In the right, … Read more

ESPN to embed sports instant-replay videos in tweets

Before you know it, smartphone-wielding football referees will be able to review their calls and respond to nasty tweets about those calls all in one go.

ESPN is set to start embedding video streams of instant replays into its tweets, according to various reports. Through a partnership with Ford and Twitter, ESPN's college football account, @ESPNCFB, will begin the effort today, as the bowl games kick in, and continue it through January 15, one week past the end of the college football season, according to Adweek.

A Twitter rep told Adweek that the clips would be 30 seconds or … Read more

Twitter unveils new ad tools for better keyword matching

Twitter said today that it has launched new tools that give advertisers better ways to match promoted tweets to search terms.

In a blog post this afternoon, Twitter said that advertisers can now choose to buy promoted tweets against exact keyword matches, phrase matches, or basic keyword matches. This should allow them to place their promoted tweets against a much wider selection of search terms, if they choose to do so.

At the same time, the microblogging service is now allowing advertisers to restrict their promoted tweets from showing up in searches for specific keywords. "For instance, if you … Read more

For the Pope on Twitter, many slings and arrows

When you come down from on high and mix with us, les miserables, it can be a touch depressing.

For though you try to take us seriously, we may not feel the same way. And, well, social media allows us to express our feelings without fear of permanent damnation.

Pope Benedict XVI, famously a recent convert to Twitter, is discovering that mixing with us isn't always pretty.

His Holiness -- and his almost equally holy advisers -- surely believes that one has to speak to the faithful through every available channel.

And yet this entails encountering the unfaithful too: … Read more

Facebook's Year in Review: Obama, Sandy, Whitney

Facebook has offered up the most popular trends across its service in 2012, as well as a new feature that lets users check out their last year.

Facebook's 2012 Trends, which the social network compiles by analyzing the most popular topics across its service this year, doesn't offer up many surprises. This year's top event on Facebook was the U.S. presidential election, followed by Super Bowl XLVI and Whitney Houston's death. Superstorm Sandy and the London Olympics rounded out the top five.

"We Are Young" by Fun was this year's top song, … Read more

Blessed are they who follow as the pope starts tweeting

Offering a blessing to his many followers, the pope's first tweet quickly traveled far and wide through the Twittersphere.

In the first few hours, the tweet picked up more than 38,000 retweets and was tagged as a favorite by nearly 13,000 people.

The first tweet from the head of the Roman Catholic church:

Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter. Thank you for your generous response. I bless all of you from my heart.

… Read more

Instagram photos still visible in tweets (in TweetDeck)

TweetDeck users can still view Instagram photos directly in tweets, despite a much-publicized move by the popular photo-sharing service to shut off its users' ability to tweet images.

Last week, Instagram announced it was ending Twitter Card integration, its most aggressive step to date in its ongoing turf war with Twitter. The upshot of the decision, which Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom announced at Le Web in Paris, was that Twitter users could no longer view Instagram photos directly in tweets.

But for some reason, those photos are still visible when viewing tweets in TweetDeck. Whether that's because of an … Read more

Twitter takes on Instagram with filters

Tuesday's CNET Update has no filter:

The CNET 100 has arrived. We've complied 100 of the most influential technology stories, trends, gadgets and people of 2012. A few may surprise you: we ranked the Galaxy S III ahead of the iPhone 5.

Also in today's news roundup:

- Twitter added photo filters in it's latest move against Instagram. But Instagram also updated its app with new camera options.

- Twitter's new profiles will roll out to every user on Wednesday. So if you don't already have a header photo, your icon will just sit … Read more