Tweet Tweet: Subscribe to SPIEGEL ONLINE's Twitter Feed

Want to stay up to date with the latest from SPIEGEL ONLINE International, your trusted second opinion from Europe? Subscribe to our Twitter feed and you'll get updates every time we publish a story.

Twitter is a free social networking site that is taking the online world by storm. Essentially it's a kind of online subscription service for text messages. Users register at www.twitter.com as a subscriber ("follower") of another Twitter user. They then receive regular brief updates, which are known as "tweets" and can be up to 140 characters long, from that person. Tweets can be anything from "having a coffee" to "check out this link".

Hundreds of thousands of people are already using this platform to stay connected with their friends, family and co-workers. It's also a great way to hear about interesting Web sites, since any user can also "twitter" Internet links to their followers.

What Can SPIEGEL ONLINE Twitter Me?

You can subscribe to SPIEGEL ONLINE International updates using Twitter. This means you'll receive a short message as soon as we publish a new article. As well as the new headlines, your Twitter inbox also includes links to the full article, should you want to read more. Click here to visit our Twitter page (you don't need to have a Twitter profile to check out the preview).

SPIEGEL ONLINE's German language Web site also offers Twitter updates, including the possibility to subscribe to the contemporary history portal einestages or to SPIEGEL ONLINE's satire site SPAM.

How Do I Follow SPIEGEL ONLINE Tweets?

First, create a Twitter profile, if you don't already have one. Next, log in. Then click on the SPIEGEL ONLINE tweet that interests you. The final step is to click "follow" in that window, and you're done! Starting immediately, you'll receive alerts on your Twitter page as soon as we publish a new article.

How Else Can I Use Twitter?

Twitter can make your life easier in many, many ways:

• With extensions such as TwitterFox for the Firefox browser, you can have the latest SPIEGEL ONLINE messages (and other Twitter messages) show up briefly in your Firefox window as soon as they're posted online.

• You can also stay up-to-date while away from the computer using special applications such as Twittelator Pro, which provides a free, slimmed-down version of Twitter for the iPhone. Many other smart phones and other mobile devices are also capable of displaying and navigating the regular Twitter site.

How Can I Optimize My Twitter Use?

There are many practical programs and platforms available online to support your use of Twitter. They allow you to send long links and photos, or to keep track of your followers and what you are following. The Twitter Web site has many cool applications to download as does the Twitter Fan Wiki.

Tell Us What You're Thinking

If you regularly subscribe to SPIEGEL ONLINE's tweets, we'd like to know what you think -- both about our Web site and our Twitter presence. What works well, and what could be improved? Send your rants and raves to spon_feedback@spiegel.de. We're continually developing SPIEGEL ONLINE's Twitter site, and we welcome your suggestions.

SPIEGEL ONLINE'S TWITTER FEEDS:

 SPIEGEL International - our English site

 SPIEGEL ONLINE - in German

 einestages - SPIEGEL ONLINE's history portal - in German

 SPAM - Satire @ SPIEGEL ONLINE - in German

Note: SPIEGEL ONLINE supplies articles to the individual Twitter pages every half hour using the twitterfeed.com service. This can lead to slight time delays.