Twitter Expands Context With Related Headline Links

Twitter has made a name for itself in the world of breaking news. Now the microblogging platform wants to add more context to these newsworthy tweets with a new feature it announced Monday called Related Headlines. You can find this new section only on the Twitter website -- specifically, on the permalink page of tweets that have been embedded in websites. Clicking the "details" button or the tweet's timestamp will show you a list of websites that have embedded the tweet in an article. When a tweet is embedded, it's displayed with expanded media such as photos, videos and article summaries and includes real-time retweet and favorite counts.
Twitter's Brian Ellin said in a post on Twitter's developer blog that this feature aims to help users discover additional information about the tweet and is a value-add for publishers.
"When you embed tweets in content, the headline of your article and Twitter account will be surfaced on the tweet's permalink page for all to see," he said. "We think this will help more people discover the larger story behind the tweet, drive clicks to your articles and help grow your audience on Twitter."
For example, when Asiana Flight 214 crash-landed at San Francisco International Airport in July, news outlets from across the globe embedded the image of the plane engulfed in smoke that a passenger posted on Twitter. Now you can now find the articles that embedded that tweet on its permalink page.
Most recently, Facebook announced that it was introducing embedded posts, starting with a handful of publishers. Twitter, which is steps ahead of Facebook with this feature, will likely be the favored resource since news outlets now have the opportunity to gain additional referral traffic as a result of being placed in the Related Headlines" section.
While all Twitter users can view this feature, not everyone will be included in the Related Headlines section. Twitter said that publishers who are already using embedded tweets will be in the first group to have their article headlines surfaced. It will add additional publishers in the coming weeks.
To be eligible for Twitter headlines, you need to become an approved publisher. You can be considered by submitting an application using this form. You must be logged into your Twitter account to access it.
This update is the latest in a handful of new changes the microblogging platform has rolled out. Last month Twitter announced improvements to search results and to user interaction on Twitter for iPhone and Twitter for Mac. Most recently, it unveiled the next version of its two-factor authentication system, which the company said is more secure.