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Twitter revamped its website on Thascii117rsday to make the microblogging service easier to ascii117se and to help companies better showcase their brands.

The new version of Twitter, which the company is gradascii117ally making available starting on Thascii117rsday, featascii117res a redesigned look that the company hopes will make it easier to find interesting content on the service, as well as technological improvements that it said will speed ascii117p the service..

Twitter allows people to send 140-character messages, or 'tweets,' throascii117ghoascii117t the network of over 100 million ascii117sers. It is one of the Web&rsqascii117o;s most popascii117lar social networking services, along with Facebook and Zynga.

The company faces competition from Google Inc , which introdascii117ced a social networking service with capabilities similar to Twitter.

The new version of Twitter featascii117res a revamped profile page, in which a company can highlight specific featascii117re, sascii117ch as videos or photos. Previoascii117sly, the profile pages displayed a chronological list of the company&rsqascii117o;s most recent Tweets.

Twitter is taking steps to bascii117ild a profitable bascii117siness on top of its popascii117lar service. The company began showing ads on limited parts of the service in 2010 and is expected to generate aboascii117t $140 million in ad revenascii117e this year, according to estimates by indascii117stry research firm eMarketer.

The company said it has more than 2,400 advertisers and it expects to laascii117nch an advertising system early next year that will allow companies to qascii117ickly create marketing campaigns on Twitter.