On Twitter, You Can Follow Not Just People But Events Too
Twitter will let users follow events which will basically be curation of live tweets, the company announced Sunday. The feature called Project Lightning, will let users instantly upload relevant photos and videos that can be shared across websites.
A team of editors will curate the most visually appealing and relevant tweets about say, a red-carpet event or shooting, and present them in one place, so that users need not be flooded with every single tweet as it is posted, social news and entertainment website Buzzfeed reported on Thursday.
The report added that Twitter's mobile app will show both pre-scheduled events and breaking news events.
Twitter spokeswoman Rachel Millner confirmed the news but did not disclose any comment further.
Executives hope that mastering live events will draw people to Twitter without requiring users to master its format and conventions, WSJ noted.
"In the project's current form, a "live" tab, with a lightning bolt icon, will be placed on Twitter's mobile app. Clicking on the icon will take a user to a guide of "events" that could include the premiere of a TV show, an NFL game, or a breaking-news event such as election results. Tapping on an event will surface full-screen views of videos, photos and tweets related to that topic-unlike the waterfall of tweets that currently appear in users' timelines."
Recently, Twitter has been struggling with user growth. The service has 302 million users but has witnessed visits from one billion people. In comparison, Facebook has 936 million daily active users (for March 2015).
CEO Dick Costolo is stepping down on July 1 and will be replaced by co-founder and chairman Jack Dorsey who will be interim chief executive.
