Twitter recently sent out password resets to accounts that were suspected of being high-jacked. Twitter has diagnosed the cause of this issue to be sites with security exploits that share the same username and password as your Twitter account.

"The takeaway from this is that people are continuing to use the same email address and password (or a variant) on multiple sites... We strongly suggest that you use different passwords for each service you sign up for."

Read the post from Twitter for complete details on the Twitter Password Reset.

Be secure, be safe, be smart.

Have you tried signing up for Twitter, only to find that the user name you want isn’t available? Well, you might be in luck.

In a post by theNextWeb.com, Twitter has communicated plans to release old usernames from inactive and deleted accounts. Twitter hasn’t officially released a date on the matter, but does promise this to be coming in the future.

We’ll keep you updated as more information is released.

Most of you have seen, or at least heard about, the new Retweet functionality in Twitter as they continue to roll out beta testing. And at first glance you may not understand why this change was needed.  Didn't Retweet work just fine?

Well, there were some shortcomings on the legacy Retweet functionality. Among other things, Retweet lacked the ability to maintain attribution, was messy with repeating "RT", and poured redundant tweets into your Twitter feed if more than one follower Retweeted the same message.

The new Retweet functionality seeks to address all of these deficiencies. The design adds a retweet link next to the tweet that will allow you to Retweet that message to all of your followers. Meta information (original tweeter / retweeter) about the tweet is removed from the text and included in the line below the tweet. And they are no longer redundant because this design change allows Twitter to track and only show you the first Retweet of a message.

And don't worry about support through your 3rd party apps. Twitter has confirmed that most of the app developers have already started to incorporate this feature and will make it available in future releases.

While the new Retweet is still in beta, the potential for a much improved experience is there.  And cleaner data presentation is better for everyone.

An in-depth review into the methodology behind the new Retweet can be read on Evan Williams blog. Evan is a co-founder and CEO of Twitter.

Twitter can be a very effective tool to quickly push information to your customers and potential customers.  Leveraging twitter on a community level may be even more important to drive sales for your business.  By utilizing directory submissions, hashtags, and communal discussion, these tools can help boost the visibility of your twitter profile.

• www.localtweeps.com - directory based on location and hashtags.
• http://geofollow.com - directory based on location and hashtags.
• www.chirpcity.com - directory.
• http://nearbytweets.com - user search by location and keywords. Useful for locating users to follow.
• http://www.twitterjobcast.com - tweeted jobs.
• http://www.twellow.com - twitter yellow pages.
• http://us.loadedweb.com/twitter - directory.
• http://tweepz.com - powerful search tool that allows search by location using “loc:city” command.
• http://wefollow.com - directory based on hashtags (which can be location).
• http://justtweetit.com - category based directory with RSS feed for category additions.
• http://twitr.org - directory based on hashtags.
• http://www.chambertwitterdirectory.com - twitter for Chamber of Commerce profile (targeted niche).
• http://www.exectweets.com - find and follow top business executive.