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Twitter's Project Lightning will let users follow events instead of people

Jun. 18, 2015 12:31 PM ETTwitter, Inc. (TWTR) StockTWTRBy: Eric Jhonsa, SA News Editor8 Comments
  • Project Lightning is "a brand-new way to look at tweets," says Twitter (TWTR +0.7%) product chief Kevin Weil. "This is a bold change, not evolutionary."
  • Lightning, due in a few months, will provide curated (human-edited) feeds for major events (the Super Bowl, the Oscars, major elections, etc.), replete with photos, autoplay videos, and tools for embedding the content in other sites/apps (thus helping Twitter reach logged-out viewers). Users will also be able to add an event's content to their regular Timeline.
  • Weil: “It could be current events. It could be breaking news. It could be awards shows or sports. But also cultural events and moments — things around your location and where you are ... But the challenge we’ve had over the years is, although we have the world’s greatest content, it’s like having a television without a channel guide or even a remote control."
  • 7-10 events/day are planned. Outgoing CEO Dick Costolo adds the feature could be opened up to 3rd-party publishers looking to curate events appealing to niche demographics.
  • Costolo states Lightning has been "in the works for a long, long time." However, curated live event feeds were one of the ideas Chris Sacca argued strongly for in his much-discussed June 3 blog post. "No one else can do live like Twitter and Periscope ... In a world of pre-fabricated and polished appearances, live events are raw, authentic, and vulnerable ... All told, nailing live events will give new and existing users a compelling reason to regularly use Twitter and will be a strong impetus to bring back inactive users who signed up long ago."
  • Twitter has moved slightly higher in response to the news.
  • Prior Twitter coverage
  • Update: Some more Twitter news: Bloomberg reports the company is "working on a marketing campaign to better explain how to use its services."

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