Twitter took the wraps off its site redesign Tuesday. The big news: Embeddable photos and videos thanks to the company's deals with 16 media companies to license their content.
Companies taking part in the launch include YouTube, Flickr, Vimeo and Ustream, which offers live streaming video.
Visitors can view the photos and videos inside tweets as part of the redesigned Twitter.com homepage and associated lists and streams — in other words, without linking to external sites.
"The new Twitter.com is faster, easier, and a richer experience that offers a better way to discover what's new in your world," Twitter co-founder Evan Williams said at the press event launching the announcement. Williams termed it a "complete revamp" of Twitter.com.
How will Twitter make money off this?
Williams said "content enhances the ad," using the possibility of movie trailers embeddable in the Tweets instead of linking off-site. He also said users can expect to see more "promotable Tweets."
Other features revealed include a redesign of users' profile pages and other cosmetic tweaks.
Williams acknowledged that the new site features have "similarities" to Facebook such as watching embedded videos on that site's status updates.
The new features are being rolled out gradually across Twitter's 160 million user base starting immediately. The company did not provide an exact timeline as to when the features would be available to everyone.
"It will be an incremental rollout depending on how it's going," Williams said.
