In September, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo announced on the Today Show that the site was getting a re-design that looked very much like Facebook, with the option to include a large header photo across the top of Twitter user profile pages. Starting on Wednesday, all Twitter users will be forced over to the previously-optional design — otherwise they’ll be looking at a large gray box on top of their page.
The header photos aren’t visible in the main Twitter feed, and might not seem like a consequential part of a user’s Twitter experience, except they turn a user’s profile page into more of a landing page for that person’s Twitter presence, and emphasize photos in the ongoing “photo war” between Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, all of whom are competing to keep users engaged and uploading images to the respective sites.
A Twitter blog post explains how to add header photos, and points out examples of media personalities and celebrities who’ve integrated the header photo into their profiles, greater evidence of Twitter’s play to become more of a media company.
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