Twitter to insert ‘recommended tweets’ into users’ feeds as part of testing phase

17 Oct 2014

Microblogging site Twitter will begin testing the placement of ‘recommended tweets’ into users’ feeds from today.

Twitter’s director of product management, Trevor O’Brien, wrote in a blog post that initial small-scale experiments had gone well, encouraging the company to begin testing on a wide scale.

“The best tweets come from people you already know, or know of,” read the statement.

“But there are times when you might miss out on tweets we think you’d enjoy. To help you keep up with what’s happening, we’ve been testing ways to include these tweets in your timeline – ones we think you’ll find interesting or entertaining.”

Which tweets get recommended for a specific user is based on data on how actively they interact with accounts they do follow and what tweets are proving popular.

Reaction on Twitter itself to the news has been overwhelmingly negative, with user’s questioning why ‘recommended tweets’ is not optional and unfavourably comparing the scheme to a similar policy operated by Facebook.

While the testing phase begins today, recommended tweets won’t immediately feature on every user’s account.

Twitter has also announced it’s closing its photo-sharing service Twitpic. Users have been given nine days to export their images before they disappear. 

Twitter mobile image via Shutterstock

Dean Van Nguyen was a contributor to Silicon Republic

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