Loading: The map automatically loads recent tweets from the area in view. Note that only geotagged tweets made by users who have enabled this feature on their mobile devices are shown. This means the tweets you see were sent from the actual locations shown.

Twitter Controls: Use the search box on the control panel to search for specific terms. You can disable automatic reloading, force a reload and clear the map using the appropriate panel controls. Loading status and popular hashtags are shown at the bottom of the panel.

Map Navigation: you can drag the map or use the 'Navigate' panel to move to locations across the globe.

Map Style: click the icon above to open the map style panel, where you can change the base map style and also add special overlays such as StreetView, YouTube and Wikipedia.

Note: Twitter sometimes imposes usage limits to its API at times of high demand. If the map does not refresh as expected, this may be the cause.