Twitter looks to get more interactive with expanded tweets

13.06.2012
Twitter is updating its "expanded tweets" feature, giving users more previews, images and videos from a growing list of news outlets.

The announced on Wednesday that it's trying to make the site more interactive for people using a desktop or a mobile device. "You've probably expanded tweets before to play videos from YouTube or see photos from Instagram," Michael Sippey, director of Twitter's product team, . "Now, a diverse and growing group of new partners like the the Wall Street Journal, MSNBC's Breaking News, and TIME also deliver rich content inside tweets containing a link to those Web sites."

Sippey noted that when a user expands a tweet about a news article from the San Francisco Chronicle, for example, they can see a preview with the story's headline and introduction, along with possibly the Twitter accounts of the publisher and the writer. Users then can click to read the article or follow an account, reply or favorite the tweet.

Users also will be able to watch snippets and video from some television shows, like Drop Dead Diva on the Lifetime network.

This should be good news for Twitter and for Twitter users, according to Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research.

"Easier is better. Faster is better. Less hassle is always better," he said. "A lot of tweets are comments on online content. Making it easier to see [that content] will help the user. And what helps the user, the writer and the reader, helps Twitter."