The embeddable tweets are essentially a micro-blogging version of newspaper-era pull quotes, intriguing statements that aim to get attention of readers and entice them to read the entire article. Twitter is calling the embedded tweets the "new quotes."

"Have you ever been quoted in a news article or blog post? If so, you know it can be a strange experience: you recognize your words, but they never sound quite right. It's the peril of transcription," Twitter explains in its Embedded Tweets pre-announcement.

The Peril of Transcription

Twitter said the peril of transcription is just one of a couple of reasons it likes ReadWriteWeb's approach to covering HP's acquisition of Palm. The article is a hyper-curated collection of what Twitter describes as "smart tweets" that are presented with useful context about the blockbuster acquisition.

Twitter says that because reporter Marshall Kirkpatrick literally pasted in the tweets he wanted to showcase as part of his article, the integrity of the quotes are accurately preserved. Twitter describes this use of tweets as "quotes that everybody can agree on."

"Fidelity aside, think about basic readability. Imagine the traditional version of this piece: it would have quotes from all the same people strung together in paragraphs. It would probably jump back and forth between people," Twitter explained. "On ReadWriteWeb, the use of real tweets helps 'chunk' the piece both visually and logically; we think it makes it easier to read."

The downside to the way Kirkpatrick is reporting, Twitter said, is that the tweets are a pasted-in image. Twitter is proposing an alternative in the form of a snippet of code webmasters can use to generate a selectable flat-HTML tweets.

The Twitter News Evolution

Could Twitter's continued innovation and growing user base be leading to the evolution of news? Korean researchers have issued a study that positions Twitter as the wave of the future of news dissemination. The researchers discovered that Twitter users talk about timely topics, a few users reach a large audience directly, and most users can reach a large audience by world of mouth.

The study equates following to subscribing to a newspaper or watching a television program. They show that user participation is connected to timely topics, news headlines and major world events. And since the researchers define media as a "means of communication, as radio, television, newspapers, and magazines, that reach or influence people widely" the conclusion is that Twitter is the future of media.

"The idea that Twitter is the 'new CNN' gets attention but it's not exactly correct. Twitter is more like a successor to Digg, which was the original 'social news' medium," said Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence.

"Twitter is a way that people expose and exchange interesting information or comment on developments. I agree that it is a valuable news tool and 'platform' but it doesn't replace traditional news sources or reporting. It simply promotes or amplifies them."