Twitter has announced that it is testing a new feature that will essentially create dedicated pages for certain places and products.
The feature is only being tested for a limited number of topics, but the latest updates to the iOS and Android apps allow users to come across these pages on mobile.
"Every month, millions of people tweet about what they love: products they buy, places they visit, books they're reading or vacations they're planning," said Twitter in a blog post. "But it can be challenging to find and engage with the most relevant tweets, images and videos about products and places when you're looking for them. So today we're beginning to test two ways to make it easier for you to discover rich and relevant content about products and places on Twitter."
Dedicated pages, called Collection pages, will essentially show images of the product or place, along with a description and a link to a website for more information. Of course, there will also be a "Buy Now" button and a list of tweets about the product. Tweets will be organized based on how relevant they are and which accounts the user follows.
Of course, the pages can be for places as well. For example, in the case of a restaurant, there will be things like photos of the restaurant, an address and perhaps a button to the restaurant's website to make reservations.
The announcement highlights Twitter's move into online shopping, a move that is expected to help turn the company's fortunes around, especially considering the fact that it has had a troubling few months when it comes to making money. Previously, the company offered users the ability to buy an item from a tweet, but this was limited to promoted tweets. This new feature takes advantage of the fact that users are regularly talking about items on Twitter and feels more like a crowdsourced effort rather than straight up advertising.
Of course, this could potentially be big news for companies looking for new ways to promote their products, too. At launch, there is no cost for companies as there might be with advertising. Collection pages can also be viewed simply by clicking on the "Browse Collection" button on the retailer's Twitter page.
The news also comes shortly after it was announced that Twitter's Dick Costolo would be stepping down as CEO.
While the company is labeling this as a test, it certainly seems like a little more than that, with the so-called test launching with 41 partners. These are no small partners either as they include the likes of Disney and Beats, as well as influential people like Ellen DeGeneres.
