Twitter

Jack Dorsey tells '60 Minutes' Twitter, Square creation stories

It might be hard to believe that emergency dispatchers in St. Louis were the inspiration for Twitter, but that's exactly the case, Jack Dorsey told "60 Minutes" recently.

This Sunday, Dorsey -- who co-founded Twitter and later co-founded Square, the mobile payments company -- will appear on "60 Minutes," recalling how listening in on radio calls between emergency dispatchers fueled his interest in the idea of very short-form communications (see video below).

During the episode, which will air Sunday evening on CBS (CNET's parent company), Dorsey will talk about growing up in St. Louis … Read more

The new papacy and new media

When the cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church were sequestered in the conclave to choose a new pope, they were instructed to give up their cell phones. No texting! Revealing the secrets behind the election of the successor to Pope Benedict XVI, they and their attendants were told, would lead to excommunication.

Jammers were also installed in the Sistine Chapel to prevent electronic communication.

For an institution that has suffered its share of leaks, the Vatican maintained its storied traditions as it voted for a pope for the second time in the 21st century.

But while the announcement that a new pope had been chosen was made via a cloud of white smoke -- a tradition that has continued since the election of Pope Benedict XV in 1914, and a symbol of the cardinals' cloistered proceedings -- the introduction to the world of Argentinean Jorge Bergoglio as Pope Francis was made on live TV and Internet, via Twitter and Facebook, and by the countless smartphone and tablet photos snapped in St. Peter's Square. … Read more

Twitter releases its handcrafted Windows 8 app

The Twitter for Windows 8 app has finally hit Microsoft's Windows Store. The social network announced today that it was launching the new app, which was uniquely tailored for Windows 8 devices.

Besides the usual Home, Connect, Discover, and Me tabs, the Windows 8 app has a host of other features. There's Snap view, which lets users adjust the size of the Twitter app and use other apps alongside it. Photos can also be expanded or shown in a photo gallery. There are two new charms -- Share and Search -- which let users tweet or search from … Read more

Twitter names Adam Messinger as company's new CTO

Twitter is continuing its recent overhaul of its executive ranks with the appointment of Adam Messinger as the company's new chief technical officer.

Messinger, who joined Twitter in 2011 as vice president of app development in the engineering department, revealed his new role at the company via his Twitter user profile. The move, which was first reported by AllThingsD, fills an executive position vacant since 2011 when Greg Pass left the company.

It wasn't immediately clear when this appointment occurred. CNET has contacted Twitter for more information and will update this report when we learn more.

Formerly responsible … Read more

Twitter adds line breaks and gets hit with the ugly stick

Twitter isn't broken, it just looks that way.

The company said today that people can now use line breaks in their tweets. The revelation has already spawned some hideous and absurdly elongated 140-character updates.

The information network fittingly announced the change with its own broken-line tweet in haiku form. The breaks in form are visible on the Web and in the company's mobile apps, though not in TweetDeck or third-party apps.

The addition is a rather unfortunate one for those who enjoy a clean stream. Creatives, poets, jokers, and teens, however, may appreciate the option to have a … Read more

Vatican reactivates pope's @Pontifex Twitter account

As the Vatican taps Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio to lead the Catholic Church, the pope's Twitter account has been reactivated. Bergoglio's first official Tweet as @Pontifex was "Habemus papam franciscum," which means, "We have a Pope Francis."

Apparently, the account was actually the Vatican's official account, but was changed to @Pontifex after a the new pope was chosen, according to CBS News.

The original @Pontifex Twitter account went into hibernation this past month in light of Pope Benedict XVI's decision to resign from the papacy due to health reasons.

Pope Benedict XVI … Read more

If Grumpy Cat is the biggest news of all, is SXSW in trouble?

AUSTIN, Texas -- Talk to just about anyone who has been at South by Southwest this year, and there's really no doubt what was the biggest news of all: Grumpy Cat.

On the one hand a sweet little cat with a facial expression that looks annoyed, and on the other one, of the biggest Internet memes of the last year, Grumpy Cat has been the unquestioned biggest star of SXSW, thanks to Mashable, which managed to bring the famous kitty to the world's most important interactive conference so that tons of her biggest fans could meet her.

Never … Read more

Friday Poll: What's your top social-media news source?

Facebook rolled out its big News Feed news yesterday. The result is more emphasis on photos and a "following" tab that will let users actually see all the updates from pages and people that they want to, instead of relying on Facebook's mysterious algorithm to deliver posts to their attention.

If this sounds a lot like the way Twitter works, that's not a coincidence. Twitter has a reputation as a breaking news source, a place to follow the commentary as it happens. The Facebook changes could put it in a similar position. All you would do is hit up the "following" tab to watch the information flow in from your favorite sources.… Read more

With new design, Facebook takes a bite out of Twitter

Today, Facebook promised to put the news back in its News Feed.

At a press event at headquarters, Mark Zuckerberg repeatedly used the phrase "personalized newspaper" to describe the direction of the site's core feature. And the Feed's new features arguably make Facebook a better way to stay on top of current events than ever before.

With a dedicated tab for everyone you're following and a renewed focus on photos, Facebook is aiming to create the kind of real-time information network that has made Twitter the top destination for news junkies.

That hasn't been … Read more

PeopleBrowsr gains small court victory against Twitter

The social media analytics company PeopleBrowsr won a victory against Twitter in court today.

Federal District Court Judge Edward Chen ruled that the case was to remain in San Francisco Superior Court. While this doesn't seem like a big deal, it is actually quite significant because it means that PeopleBrowsr's service won't be shuttered during litigation.

The lawsuit between the two companies is complicated, but it basically boils down to Twitter restricting access to its tweets and data -- which PeopleBrowsr needs for its service.

According to PeopleBrowsr, it paid Twitter $1 million a year for the … Read more