This article was published on April 30, 2009

Barack Obama’s Twitter account was hacked on the 5th January…and other interesting Twitter facts.


Barack Obama’s Twitter account was hacked on the 5th January…and other interesting Twitter facts.

twitter-iconEarlier today we posted a number of screenshots of Twitter’s admin panel. Interestingly, a number of notable fact nuggets were discovered. With help from a few friends we have compiled a list of some of the most interesting, if you discover any more, be sure to let us know via @zee or @thenextweb on twitter.

A few neat little facts from the screenshots:

  • Featured users can be added by simply adding a username. (not by automatically generated by algorithm)
  • The screenshots were of Jason Goldman’s, Twitter’s product manager, Twitter account.
  • There are a total of 187 featured users
  • A 126 update per day limit (via LouisGray)
  • A 250 direct messages per day limit (via LouisGray)
  • A 1,000 favorites per day limit (via LouisGray)
  • Britney Spears is blocked by 3855 users
  • Ashton Kutcher Joined Jan 16th…in just over 4 months – he’s gained over 1.5 million followers.
  • A useful list of Twitter hints can be found here.
  • Ashton Kutcher blocks PerezHilton
  • LilyRoseAllen blocks PerezHilton
  • Barack Obama blocks 96 Twitterers
  • Barack Obama’s account was hacked on the 5th January 2009

Other interesting stats, not from the screenshots.

  • 1,382% year-over-year growth in February 2009.
  • Total unique visitors grew from 475,000 in February 2008 to seven million last month.
  • Twitter is the fastest growing member community site for the month of February.
  • Zimbio (240%) and Facebook (228%) were the second and third-fastest growing online communities.
  • Twitter is not just for kids: In February 2009, adults ages 35-49 had the largest representation on Twitter – almost 3 million unique visitors from this age group (almost 42% of the entire audience).
  • 62% of the audience access Twitter from work only, while only 35% access it only from home – watch out for those, “Twitter is killing our productivity at work” articles to start flowing out of the mass media any day now.
  • It’s all about mobile: In January 2009, 735,000 unique visitors accessed Twitter via their mobile device.
  • The average unique visitor went to Twitter 14 times during the month.
  • They spent an average of 7 minutes on the site.
  • In Q4 2008, 812,000 unique users sent or received Twitter text messages (via AT&Tor Verizon cell phones).
  • The average tweet per person for the quarter was nearly 240.

Thanks to LouisGray, SimonWicks and Six Pixels of Separation for their help compiling these.

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