This morning, Buzzfeed revealed that Twitter’s now ex-CEO, Dick Costolo, has been keeping a huge secret from us all that may change the way we interact with live news and events on the platform. This secret, going by the name of ‘Project Lightning’, comes in the form of a new tool that “will bring event-based curated content to the Twitter platform.”
This new feature sounds quite similar to what Snapchat has already been doing with their curated “Stories” featuring snaps from users in different countries and from important events going on around the world. However, Twitter’s version will not only have “instant-load photos and videos.” It will also be a new way to experience breaking news to award shows to sporting events through the carefully chosen tweets and content of the users directly involved (with the benefit of it all being in one place). Unlike a Snapchat that disappears after a few seconds, this content can be easily accessed whenever from a new button that will be introduced on the home row of Twitter’s main page.
Pressing on this new button will take users to a another page where different editor-curated collections for events creating a lot of buzz will appear. In these collections will be images, videos, and tweets associated with a particular event that you wouldn’t see on your own Twitter timeline (Buzzfeed). The visual content curated is not limited to those posted exclusively on Twitter, they will also be drawn from Vine and Periscope. All of the visual content will automatically load instantly as you flick through the different collections—almost as fast as a lightning. A lightning bolt icon will similarly identify the newest content.
Project Lightning is set to be launched in a few months—are you excited?
