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Did you know Twitter site allows users to add special characters and unicode symbols to the tweet messages? These special characters are usually accessible through the built in Character Map application in Windows, but it is too much hassle to open up the application through the windows start button.

The folks at the Next Web has come up with an applet called TwitterKeys which groups these symbols together in a mini window that you can copy and paste from. All you need to do is just drag the link provided to your browser toolbar and click on it to start using.

I think this is an excellent tool as this saves a lot of characters being used if you have a long tweet message.

Sample taken from the Next Web:

“I’m going to ? to ? in the morning after I make a ? to make sure my ? is ? with it. ? for now and don’t forget to ? and lets have ? soon!”

Related posts:

1. Twitter got facelifted (Much improved UI)

 The enhancement includes shifting of the menu tabs from the top to the side of the  page (which I find it more convenient to click now), ajax based message (means the  message updates are now displayed without refreshing the page), simplified and  cleaner look, as well as the much improved page personalization which lets you  customize your colour scheme and background (results will be in real-time).

See my page changes here.

Overall, it is a welcomed enhancement, although I would like to see these features in the future:

1. Perform groupings of people and messages.

2. Shows users who are currently logged on/online.

Any more suggestions?

[Picture credit: lopagf]

Related posts:

1. Twitter addon : TwitterKeys lets you add more characters