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Twitter experiments with dedicated News tab

By Koh Wanzi - on 4 Aug 2015, 11:41am

Twitter experiments with dedicated News tab

Image Source: BuzzFeed

Twitter is rolling out an experimental News tab for select users of its iOS and Android app in the US. Despite its strong core of loyal users, the beleaguered social network has long struggled with flagging user growth numbers. The problem was even big enough to spark off a leadership change at the very top as CEO Dick Costolo stepped down early last month.

The nature of Twitter’s feed is such that it’s a great tool for keeping up with live conversations and trending topics, but not as effective when used for content discovery. The News tab is aimed at helping to bolster it in the latter area.

The tab sits in the middle of the app’s navigation bar and calls up a list of trending headlines on the platform. Clicking on a headline takes a user to the story, complete with top tweets discussing it. These aren’t curated stories in the style of Apple News or Facebook Instant Articles, so users will be served with trending and probably the latest – but not necessarily the best – stories.

But as it turns out, Twitter isn’t adverse to curated content either. Its upcoming Project Lighting feature will pick out the best tweets about daily events to give users a clearer picture of the highlights of the moment.

Twitter’s reverse chronological feed gives it a unique appeal, but it’s also a source of considerable noise, especially if you follow a lot of people. Features like Project Lightning and the News tab may help users get a more focused experience out of Twitter and distil key takeaways from the never-ending stream of tweets.

This is especially important when it comes to attracting and retaining new users, which Twitter desperately needs to do. A long-time Facebook user who is used to its organized News Feed and Top Stories may find Twitter’s approach disorienting, and the News tab could help ease them into the platform, while also building on Twitter’s strength in tapping into the conversation of the moment.

Of course, the News tab is still an experiment, so Twitter may decide to do away with it at any moment.

Source: BuzzFeed via Engadget

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