Tweeters are being challenged as they anticipate a reduced character count in their tweets. Twitter is preparing to shift from the current count of 140 characters per tweet to a paltry 118 characters. Beginning in February, tweets containing URLs will be reduced to 118 characters. HTTP links will be punished with only 117 characters available. Before you go into panic mode, keep in mind that this is only a two-character loss from tweets previously involving a hyperlink.
The way it works is every time Twitter sends out a tweet containing a hyperlink; each link that Twitter shortens will now take up more space thereby shortening the characters to 117. The heads-up from Twitter is to give developers ample time to re-tool their apps before it goes into effect on Feb 20th. The character shrinkage represents a new challenge to innovative tweeters who have virtually invented a new communications language that perplexes all but the most dedicated tweeters. One theory for the change is that Twitter is anticipating that longer URLs will be introduced in the future and something is got to give. You can identify shortened hyperlinks by links that start with “t.co/”.
Tweeters’ always rise to the occasion when tasked to “tweak the tweets” in an effort to further increase efficiency in Twitter’s messaging capabilities. One can only imagine the discovery of Tweets unearthed by future paleontologists. Imagine tweets being placed under great scrutiny as scientist attempt to de-cipher the hieroglyphics of the 21st century. To its credit, Twitter did manage to morph from little more than a silly recreational activity into one of the most life-transforming technologies of the century. No one seems to be able to determine where these technologies will take us. We only need to enjoy the ride.
