Twitter rolling out Facebook-like user profiles on web

We have been hearing about them for a while and it’s finally here. Starting now, select Twitter accounts will display the new web profile view.

Twitter is starting out by giving the new web profiles page to a select accounts and any users who sign in from now on. But all users will get profile pages, according to the Twitter blog. Starting today, you can see the webprofiles for film stars @zacefron and @channingtatum, French TV host @nikosaliagas, Australian Football League @AFL, US First Lady Michelle Obama @flotus, Brazilian singer, guitarist, and songwriter@gilbertogil, boxer @FloydMayweather, TV star @kerrywashington and musicians @JohnLegend and @weezer. It’s not yet clear how Twitter has gone about choosing the accounts.

The new web profile page is all about highlighting the top tweets and conversations in your account and your timeline. Firstly, there’s a larger display picture to go alongside the new design and a header image too. It all looks very much like the profile page on Facebook, which is a pity.

The web profile displays some of your most popular tweets. The ones that have received more engagement will appear slightly larger than the others, so you always know which of your tweets has got your followers talking about. You can also pin one of your tweets to the top of the profile page. Twitter says “it’s easy for your followers to see what you’re all about.”

And lastly, when seeing other profiles, users have the option to choose which view they want. They can see all tweets, only tweets with photos/videos, or tweets and replies. This will no doubt push the celebrity and brand engagement factor higher, seeing as users can now sort the tweets.

While we knew that web profiles will be hitting Twitter anytime soon, we didn’t expect the company to mimic Facebook so closely. In fact, the header photo placement and the profile picture slightly below it are exactly how they are on Facebook. While Twitter lovers may hate this look, it does make things a bit uniform for the indiscriminate social media junkie.