Twitter is adding context to trending topics with an update designed to answer the question: Why is this topic trending? .

Twitter is going to help users discover why specific topics become popular by adding context with a representative tweet. The business says people ought to be capable to instantly understand why something is trending. With the way the trending section is designed today; it is not always easy to comprehend why the subject ended up there. Anecdotally speaking; I have noticed that many trending topics are full of folks asking; why the subject is trending in the first location.

In reality, Twitter claims the question of why is this particular trending? has been tweeted over half a million times during the past year. To make it more clear why a topic is trending, a pinned tweet and a description will appear alongside tendencies to add context.

Throughout Twitter, we have been working to attract people more context on what is happening with labels on Tweets and accounts as well as curated pages and related articles on tendencies. To help with this, we are adding fixed tweets and descriptions on tendencies to help clarify why something is trending.

Representative Tweets

This update is designed with the idea that all it can take is the right tweet to understand why something is trending. Twitter calls a representative tweet, and that is what users will find pinned below particular tendencies. Only some, tendencies may have a representative tweet pinned on them, maybe not all of them. Given how quickly trending topics can come and go, it might be unrealistic to promise representative tweets to all of them. Maybe if the whole process has been automated that may be accomplished, but there is a human curation team engaged in choosing the right tweet for every trend.

Twitter is employing algorithms along with its curation group to determine how well a tweet represents a certain fashion. The algorithms are designed to recognize representative tweets that are not possibly abuse, spam, or published by accounts hoping to take advantage, of Twitter’s systems.

After Twitter’s algorithms have identified a suitable tweet for a specific subject, its curatorship team will assess whether it is both reflective of the trend as well as popular.

Representative tweets are rolling out today on Twitter for iOS and Android. They’ll ultimately be added into the browser version of Twitter as well. As you can tell it is instantly evident why these particular trends are popular.

Representative tweets don’t accompany most tendencies though. Only 4 out from the top 10 subjects had a unread tweet when I checked. Obviously, which will vary from one moment to the next based on what is trending at the time.

Descriptions coming later

As mentioned, Twitter’s plan isn’t just to add representative tweets to trending topics, but a short description as well. Twitter users might have to wait a little longer for that, as descriptions will be rolling out later.

“In the coming weeks, you should see brief descriptions added to some trends as well to help add context to the trend. Descriptions will provide straightforward, clearly sourced context around why something is trending.

Descriptions are developed by our curation team and follow their guidelines.”

When Twitter does add the descriptions for trending topics, they’ll be added to the mobile app as well as twitter.com.

Source: Twitter