Twitter introduces multimedia-led search across service, enhances discovery on mobile apps

16 Nov 2012

Twitter has updated its search results on all platforms to highlight images and video, while expanded tweets in search and the Discovery tab now show users more at a glance.

Twitter’s expanded tweets, which show previews of articles and images shared in tweets, have now been introduced with more than 2,000 partners. While users viewing their main Twitter feed need to tap a tweet to jump to the expanded version, Twitter has decided to automatically expand tweets in all search results, as well as in the Discover section on mobile.

This is great for Twitter browsers who want more information to hand instantly, and also means users can do more with their 140-character allowance. Since expanded tweets reveal the content of a link or image for users, there’s no need to include a full description in the text of the tweet in order to encourage users to click through, leaving more room for comment.

Twitter mobile screenshots

Search results have also been revamped to highlight photos and videos first, showing relevant media being shared around the query. Twitter also makes its tailored ranking (introduced about a year ago) clearer, as users can see who favourite or retweeted the tweets appearing at the top of their results, putting into context why these tweets were selected for prominence.

Elaine Burke is the host of For Tech’s Sake, a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network. She was previously the editor of Silicon Republic.

editorial@siliconrepublic.com