Twitter has announced a new security feature: a user setting that lets you always use HTTPS when accessing Twitter.com. HTTPS is particularly important when using an Internet service over an unsecured Wi-Fi connection.
The HTTPS version of Twitter has been available via at https://twitter.com for some time now. Twitter has now added an option for the service to always use HTTPS. To turn it on, go to your settings and check the box next to "Always use HTTPS" at the bottom of the page.
In the future, Twitter wants to make HTTPS the default setting for everyone. It is already the default (whether or not you've enabled the "Always use HTTPS" setting) in two scenarios: when you log into Twitter (so your password stays protected) and on the official Twitter for iPhone and iPad mobile application.
The setting doesn't always work. When accessing Twitter from your mobile browser, you need to go to https://mobile.twitter.com to use HTTPS. Twitter is working on a solution that will share the "Always use HTTPS" setting across twitter.com and mobile.twitter.com. Also, many third-party Twitter applications don't yet offer HTTPS.
In related news, Twitter shared some numbers on tweets earlier this week:
- 3 years, 2 months, and 1 day. The time it took from the first tweet to the billionth tweet.
- 1 week. The time it now takes for users to send a billion tweets.
- 50 million. The average number of tweets people sent per day, one year ago.
- 140 million. The average number oftTweets people sent per day, in the last month.
- 177 million. Tweets sent on March 11, 2011.
- 456. Tweets per second (TPS) when Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009 (a record at that time).
- 6,939. Current TPS record, set four seconds after midnight in Japan on New Year's Day.
I do not have Twitter for personal use, but I do use it for work. You can follow @TechSpot for news from the site or follow me directly: @EmilProtalinski. How do you use Twitter?