14 DAY TRIAL // There’s a lot of activity on Twitter and, though it’s certainly public and easily accessible, most of the times, the tweets themselves tend to be rather isolated from the rest of the web. Sure, the Twitter API is one of the best out there, but it’s not just the information that matters, it’s the look and feel of the tweet as well.
At least that’s what Twitter seems to think as it is going to launch an embeddable tweet feature. This will enable bloggers and anyone writing online to quote a tweet just like they would insert a YouTube video.
“Have you ever been quoted in a news article or blog post? If so, you know it can be a strange experience: you recognize your words, but they never sound quite right. It’s the peril of transcription,” the company wrote on its Media blog.
“We have a simple alternative to propose; it’s coming tomorrow. No, really. It’s very simple. Just a snippet of code you’ll be able to use to generate simple, selectable flat-HTML tweets,” it announced.
The idea is simple enough, an embed code will be provided, like most online videos have, which could be pasted in an article to bring a piece of Twitter to your post. The code is just pure HTML, no Flash or anything like that, so it should slot in nicely anywhere and the tweet should be readable in any browser. Your readers will be able to see who posted the tweet and there will be a link to the user’s profile and a permalink to the tweet.
It’s a small feature and one that someone with even basic web-coding skills could have put together, most likely someone already has, but it’s a welcome addition. With a broad range of information about the tweet available and a consistent look, it will probably be adopted by most people.