Twitter pulls off April Fools' Day trick

Twitter pulled an April Fools' Day prank yesterday by pretending it was going to charge users for tweeting vowels.

The social networking site made the announcement on its official blog, stating there were plans in place to charge people $5 a month to use a "premium service" whereby customers have the luxury of using contestants and vowels, but people who decided against signing up would have to make do with the vowel-free option.

Twitter explained: "Starting today, we are shifting to a two-tiered service. Everyone can use our basic service, Twttr, but you only get consonants.

"We're doing this because we believe that by eliminating vowels, we'll encourage a more efficient and 'dense' form of communication. We also see an opportunity to diversify our revenue stream."

Following the announcement, TV personality Joan Rivers tweeted:

Twyttyr? Why byy vywyls whyn yyy gyt "Y" fyr fryy? Syckyrs! #nvwls

— Joan Rivers (@Joan_Rivers) April 1, 2013