The makeover is designed to mark World Aids Day, which aims to raise awareness and funds for HIV/Aids projects across the world.

Twitter’s new red livery also contains a link directly through to the Twitter page of Product Red, the HIV/Aids awareness charity founded by U2 singer Bono which hopes to fight the spread of Aids in Africa.

Twitter users are also able to add a virtual red World Aids Day ribbon to their Twitter picture. The virtual ribbon, known as a Twibbon, is displayed on top of a user’s profile picture on all of their tweets.

There is also a special hashtag, #red, which changes tweets red to pick out mentions of World Aids Day. And celebrity Twitter users are also throwing their weight behind the awareness campaign.

Stephen Fry said the red tweets were “cool”, and urged fellow Twitter users to show their support for Aids charities: “The tworld has gone #RED for #WorldAIDSDay. You can visit www.worldAIDSday.org to read real stories about HIV and show your support.”

The actor Ashton Kutcher, who has more than four million Twitter followers, tweeted: “10% of world population is in Africa. 67% of all HIV cases are there. Get involved #red”

It’s the first time Twitter has changed its layout or colour scheme to mark an event in this way. Other websites, such as Google, regularly display special “doodles” or logos to mark notable dates. The Google.com webpage currently has a red ribbon logo on it, with a link through to Google.org, the search giant’s philanthropic division, where web users can find out more about HIV/Aids projects. (Via Telegraph)

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