Twitter boss unveils @anywhere messaging

At the South by Southwest Interactive conference in Texas the head of Twitter Evan Williams has announced a new web integration tool.

Dubbed @anywhere the tool consists of a few lines of javascript that can be dropped into any web page to enable tweets to be sent via an existing account, similar to the Google Connect programme.

For example, by moving the cursor over a reporter's byline the user could sign up to their feed or send a message to followers about an article.

"This is not an ad platform, it is an 'at' platform," Williams said.

"It should result in more followers for a site and more fans talking on Twitter."

So far 13 major sites have signed up: Amazon, AdAge, Bing, Citysearch, Digg, eBay, The Huffington Post, Meebo, MSNBC.com, The New York Times, Salesforce.com, Yahoo, and YouTube.

Williams gave few details, not saying when the service would be introduced or if there would be any costs for those embedding the code.

This is the latest in a series of additions Twitter has made, including geo-location, improved security and its data Firehose.