Twitter to make tweets embeddable

Writers can now quickly embed tweets in stories and blogs

Twitter will reveal a new offering later today aimed at news organisations that will allow writers to quickly embed tweets in stories.

The feature, which will also be relevant to bloggers, comes in response to the growing tendency among news writers to use tweets instead of quotes, the firm said.

However, there has been no easy way for writers to embed tweets in stories, so they have had to link to tweets or copy and paste the text.

"The truth, of course, is that a pasted-in image of a tweet is a bit of a hack," said Twitter in a public announcement.

"We have a simple alternative to propose. Just a snippet of code you'll be able to use to generate simple, selectable flat-HTML tweets."

Twitter has grown in sophistication in recent months, adding more features and integration with mobile phones and other web sites. The company had historically relied on third-party developers to provide integration and interesting features.

The official updates coincide with statements made last month by Twitter investor Fred Wilson, principal of Union Square Ventures.

Wilson said that third-party developers focused on the Twitter platform should consider more radical innovation, and the creation of "killer apps", rather than filling holes in the Twitter product.