What Twitter Cards Will Do For Twitter
A while back (before the recent API controversy) I tweeted, “Twitter should buy IFTTT”. A lot of people replied, some agreeing and others not as much.
The trouble with Twitter is that they can’t touch the stream. No money making schemes can be baked into innovation in design, because the design can’t fundamentally change. All things serve the stream (yes, Dark Tower reference). Therefore, I presumed it’d be actions inside of and away from the stream that Twitter would monetize - ’recipes’ for Favorites, RT, links tweeted with certain hashtags, clickthroughs, could be partnerships and premium features.
Instead, they’ve created Twitter cards. The idea with Twitter cards is that:
it is data that doesn’t necessarily have to be included in your tweet. It can be anything related to the URL that is linked to, and can even include semi-personalized information.
via Way of the Duck
So far, these Twitter cards have been used to give a small image alongside the first sentence of an article for media properties. For photos, it’s basically the photo.
At Findings, we’ve manipulated it to show your post on Findings, but the link in the tweet leads people back to the source. In the Twitter dialogue box, you can input anything. So, your tweets can appear like this
Clicking the link takes the user straight to the article on Esquire. We decided the source is more important than the post, since the entirety of the post is contained in the tweet already.
Future plans for the Twitter cards include
Before Twitter cards, every opportunity to tweet from an app was created to be as self-serving to that app as possible. It’s always boring.
The new Hosu lounge by Patricia Urquiola is on sale on @Fab for just a few more fabulous days: http://fab.com/sale/11775/
With Twitter cards, Fab could inject a decently sized photo of the product along with the URL and potentially sell the product inside of the stream. This is all in the expanded view so the sanctity of the stream is still saved. Uninterested? Keep skimming.
Is this going to make Twitter money? Making buying easier increases likelihood of purchase. We all know this. Producers especially know this. But in order for that amount of money to be significant, Twitter has to become the average user’s default browser. As in, I want tickets to Argo, so I visit Argo’s Twitter account to buy them. This is not likely to happen, Fandango and other ticket services have better options than Twitter possibly could place into a card. But, Twitter is betting on the same thing that’s worked for them forever, the reason Twitter *does* work - serendipity.
Serendipity is the reason you keep checking the stream, even when there’s nothing timely occurring to check on. Sudden opportunities to network/socialize, surprising reads, jokes; this is why you open the Twitter app outside of work.
So, stumbling across a promotion in my stream for tickets to see Argo at Union Square Cinemas on Twitter and being able to buy it with one-click? That might work.
I went to the mall, and a little girl called me a terrorist.
My name is Ela. I am seventeen years old. I am not Muslim, but my friend told me about her friend being discriminated against for wearing a hijab. So I decided to see the discrimination firsthand to get a better understanding of what Muslim women go through.
My friend and I pinned scarves around our heads, and then we went to the mall. Normally, vendors try to get us to buy things and ask us to sample a snack. Clerks usually ask us if we need help, tell us about sales, and smile at us. Not today. People, including vendors, clerks, and other shoppers, wouldn’t look at us. They didn’t talk to us. They acted like we didn’t exist. They didn’t want to be caught staring at us, so they didn’t look at all.
And then, in one store, a girl (who looked about four years old) asked her mom if my friend and I were terrorists. She wasn’t trying to be mean or anything. I don’t even think she could have grasped the idea of prejudice. However, her mother’s response is one I can never forgive or forget. The mother hushed her child, glared at me, and then took her daughter by the hand and led her out of the store.
All that because I put a scarf on my head. Just like that, a mother taught her little girl that being Muslim was evil. It didn’t matter that I was a nice person. All that mattered was that I looked different. That little girl may grow up and teach her children the same thing.
This experiment gave me a huge wakeup call. It lasted for only a few hours, so I can’t even begin to imagine how much prejudice Muslim girls go through every day. It reminded me of something that many people know but rarely remember: the women in hijabs are people, just like all those women out there who aren’t Muslim.
People of Tumblr, please help me spread this message. Treat Muslims, Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, Pagans, Taoists, etc., exactly the way you want to be treated, regardless of what they’re wearing or not wearing, no exceptions. Reblog this. Tell your friends. I don’t know that the world will ever totally wipe out prejudice, but we can try, one blog at a time.
this is so perfect in absolutely every single way.
a white girl put on a hijab and experienced discrimination. suddenly the tumblr-verse erupts in awareness. of course.
Source: imperfectwriting
Why Flamin’ Hot Cheetos are sending kids to ER via Findings.
just some new facts for your thursday.
Findings Blog: 10th Most Clipped Article on Findings
Over the next two weeks we’re running down the 10 most popular articles on Findings!
In the #10 spot is: The Tweaker, The real genius of Steve Jobs.
Malcolm Gladwell - the scientist of anecdotal evidence - wrote this piece for the New Yorker, declaring Jobs’s indecisive and stubborn nature…
I wrote a blog post on Findings that was supposed to be all cheery and nice then I got mean.
Miley Cyrus haircut shocker: Short hair isn’t a cry for help via Findings.
Wait, what.
Tap through to read, interface inspired by Robin Sloan’s Fish essay.
Judging a Book by Its Lover is out today. Lots of crazy facts such as:
- Kurt Vonnegut’s nickname in high school was “snarf”. A snarf was someone who smelled girls’ bicycle seats.
- Ayn Rand had a six foot tall dollar sign made of flowers next to her casket at her funeral.
- Rielle Hunter is the inspiration for a character raped by Patrick Bateman in American Psycho)
- The line Daisy says in Great Gasby about her daughter, “I hope she’ll be a beautiful fool” - that was taken almost word from word from a recording F. Scott had of Zelda, drugged after giving birth to their daughter.
