14 DAY TRIAL // Twitter may be annoying a lot of people with its API changes lately, but even as it drives away client apps, it's looking at how it can expand the reach of its content, without compromising its integrity, or in other words, without others skipping out on the ads. Hence the new embeddable Twitter stream.
"Today we’re launching a new tool that makes it easy to embed interactive timelines of Tweets on any website," Twitter announced.
"Whether it’s an author’s Tweets alongside their blog, a hashtag about an event like #DNC2012, or a list of competitors at the US Open, Tweets add a live, real-time dimension to articles, news reports, and the web at large," it explained.
Truth be told, it actually sounds like a good idea. Many bloggers may enjoy the option of having their tweets embedded in a sidebar on their blogs, giving their readers a central place to view everything they publish, even if it’s random Twitter thoughts.
For Twitter, the attraction is that it controls the entire experience. That can be a good thing, since changes to the way tweets are displayed, new meta data or even things like inline images are easier to add.
But it also means that it's Twitter's way or the highway and that you'll be seeing ads in these embeddable streams sooner rather than later. Ads that make Twitter and Twitter alone money.
Still, it's a useful tool, the interactive elements are quite interesting and thorough. You can retweet, reply, favorite and generally do whatever you can on the main Twitter website.
"When you browse websites that have embedded a Twitter timeline, you can now interact with it in the same way you do on twitter.com. Expand Tweets to see photos, media, and more," Twitter explained.