Twitter unveils photo upload service for all users

Twitter may have a strict 140-character limit for each tweet but with the new feature it recently launched, users now have a way to fit more than a thousand words in just one message. On Wednesday, Twitter officially unveiled for all users the photo sharing feature it announced late May, allowing users to upload photos on the site itself instead of using third-party applications. Users of the microblogging site were greeted with a message upon opening the site, saying: "Share an image on Twitter. Now you can upload and share messages, right from Twitter!" To upload an image along with a tweet, users would just have to click the camera icon located below the "Compose Tweet" textbox and select the image they want to upload. After making their selection, Twitter said a thumbnail of the photo will appear below the box. For those using older browsers, the filename will be shown instead of a thumbnail. Twitter said the limit to the file size users could upload using the feature is only 3 megabytes, and will be scaled down "to fit into the display pane on the right side of your timeline." Just last week, Twitter forced all of its users to migrate into the new layout it initially launched early this year, presumably to pave the way for this new feature. Photos uploaded through this new feature will be stored on Photobucket, an online photo storage site, Twitter said. The company made no mention of enabling multiple uploads of images on a single tweet, but hinted at plans of rolling out a Galleries feature soon. "In the coming weeks, we’ll add user media galleries, which will let you see the images a user has shared on Twitter," it said, adding that the user galleries will include photos shared by users on the site that were uploaded to third-party services such as Twitpic, yfrog and Instagram. For those concerned with privacy, Twitter clarified that photos of users with protected accounts will not be seen by those who don't follow them, and they their uploads will not show up in the newly fleshed out videos and photos search engine for hashtags. It added that photos that have already been deleted will likewise not show up in search results. As of posting time the photo upload functionality has not yet been activated for the mobile applications of the popular microblogging service, but technology blog TechCrunch said it may soon be in the offing. "Twitter tells me ... the ability to tweet directly from the iPhone camera will [have to wait] for the launch of iOS 5 in the fall," it said. The blog added that Twitter's Galleries function may very well be the feature that will eventually kill off popular third-party photo-sharing sites. "It will herald Twitter’s true foray into the photo-sharing business and the real threat to third parties like YFrog. Until then, we wait," it said. — TJD, GMA News