The new design is reminiscent of Facebook’s Timeline, and provides users with a more personal and visual feel. The most conspicuous feature is a dominant photo in the upper right that takes up some of the screen real estate once held by tweets.

Costolo said the new design will be appearing right away but as the site for now looks the same (on my Twitter page anyways), here is a closer look at the image above, taken from the Today Show:

Both the new look and the way it was announced confirm Twitter’s ambitions as a major media player. The company has already partnered with NBC on top-shelf events like the Olympics and signed up major advertisers like NASCAR. Prior to Costolo’s appearance, this morning’s Today Show was peppered with Twitter-related hype about Justin Bieber and how Ryan Seacrest used the medium to announce American Idol judges.

To get a deeper understanding of what Twitter is and where it is going, see my colleague Mathew Ingram’s piece: “Twitter as media“

Twitter also announced a new iPad design. The company’s official blog said Twitter has ”rebuilt the app from the ground up to make it fast, beautiful and easy to use.”

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