Twitter Announces major redesign

A faster, simpler way to stay close to everything you care about.

The changes were released Thursday in updates to Twitter's software for smartphones and tablet computers. Visitors to Twitter's website should start seeing the new look during the next few weeks.

With the changes, it will be easier to find people and companies with Twitter profiles. All it will take is typing an "@" symbol in front of a user's handle.

Entering a subject with a hash tag "#" in front of it will show everything on Twitter related to that topic. And clicking on a specific tweet will display any other exchanges tied to the message to provide further context about the discussion.

Profile pages are also being expanded so individuals and companies can showcase more information about themselves in text, photos and video.