Twitter revamps trends to explain why a topic is popular
Peeking at what's trending on Twitter ensures you don't miss anything, but sometimes a hashtag's meaning isn't obvious. For those strange-looking acronyms, subjects and unfamiliar names, the 140-character social network tweaked the way its Android and iOS apps handle trends. On the top chart, there are descriptions for each item that not only decodes a hashtag, but explains why the subject is a hot topic. The company nixed the Discover and Activity tabs too, and all the details on what's popular now reside in Search. Unfortunately, the new workflow is only available on mobile in the US for now, but it'll arrive in more locales, and on the desktop, "in the future." Revamped trends follows the recent change to quote retweets so that they don't eat up that valuable character allotment -- both of which make Twitter's own software more attractive.
