Twitter starts rolling out Facebook-like features

Twitter showed off some handy-dandy new website features a while ago and we chuckled because they make the micro-blogging service resemble Facebook a bit. Well, it's time to stop laughing, because those new features are starting to roll out — whether we like them or not.

The new features I'm talking about are the "@Username" and "Activity" tabs which will appear on Twitter.com. (Yes, your third-party Twitter apps are safe from these changes for now.)

For Subscribers

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For Subscribers

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAbdul El-Sayed tries to woo MAHA voters as Democrats seek inroads with RFK’s supporters

FOR SUBSCRIBERSKratom-like substances are popping up in a typically benign supplement

FOR SUBSCRIBERSGOP super PAC increases its spending for Sen. Jon Husted in tough Ohio race

FOR SUBSCRIBERSRecords reveal tumultuous marriage between slain New York Times executive and wife

FOR SUBSCRIBERSFrom clean energy warrior to ‘wall of shame,’ James Talarico reverses on a fossil fuel money pledge

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCongressional staff planned official trip with luxury stops in Italy and France weeks before election

FOR SUBSCRIBERSA harrowing ordeal aboard an Israel-bound plane

FOR SUBSCRIBERSOpenAI CEO Sam Altman to skip congressional hearing on rogue AI agents

FOR SUBSCRIBERSKey DOJ lawyers departed Trump ‘grand conspiracy’ probe amid pressure to produce, source says

FOR SUBSCRIBERSTrump’s new AI chatbot often links to a site launched under Clinton 26 years ago

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAt MAHA summit, industry CEOs the movement once vilified take the stage

FOR SUBSCRIBERSThis Paralympian has two goals: Win medals and give away $500,000 to her teammates

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCornell rape allegation spotlights stringent New York state laws that have long drawn criticism

FOR SUBSCRIBERSThe debate over AI’s future rages on both coasts

FOR SUBSCRIBERSDecades-old march dispute reignites in Northern Ireland, threatening political crisis

The @Username tab will show you any Twitter activity that's related to you — such as who started following you, who replied to you, and which of your tweets which were favorites or retweeted. The Activity tab, on the other hand, will show the same information — but for people you follow. (Meaning that you can see whom they started following, which tweets they marked as favorites, and so on.)

Sounds a bit like Facebook's News Feed and Ticker, no? 

Of course, unlike those Facebook features, Twitter's @Username and Activity streams aren't in your face. Instead they reside in tabs which you can choose to ignore. In other words: They're not affecting (or cluttering) the Twitter homepage with more data than you can handle. Only time will tell whether that approach will keep Twitter's users from complaining about the changes (as the Facebook crowd tends to).

A lot of Twitter users are seeing these new tabs already, but don't cry if you're not one of them yet — new features like this tend to be rolled out gradually.

Related stories:

• You can share photos on Twitter via text messages
• Twitter tests 'Top News' and 'Top People' in search results
• Twitter makes sending tweets to Facebook easier

Want more tech news, silly puns, or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.