Twitter can be both efficient and maddening with its 140-character limits. Abbreviations have become acceptable, even when they aren’t correct. New words have joined our language and symbols can at times express more than words.

Mashable introduced me to several new tools this past week to make sense of  the new language limits. My favorites? Thsrs (the shorter thesaurus), which offers less lengthy synonyms for long words so you can fit within the 140-character count. If you don’t mind the abbreviations, but have difficulty with self-editing, you can let 140it do it for you. Just close your eyes and hit “click.” While the site shaves down your tweets, you could end up sounding like a 12-year-old girl. Other tools define hashtags, analyze your personality based on tweets, and translate into foreign languages. I’m not giving up my AP Stylebook, but it’s always good to have the right tool for the job.