Micro-blogging website Twitter has changed the way URL links are displayed on its mobile platforms, and it has taken a leaf out of Facebook’s design book to change how URLs are displayed. Enter, Summary Cards.
Summary cards or the cards layout, as the feature is called popularly, is now available on the Twitter clients as well as mobile websites for iOS and Android. If you are an avid user of the microblogging service, you might’ve already seen the cards in play. The ugly and non-sensical URLs are now out, replaced by new, minimalisitic card-like layouts.
This new feature has many advantages- it makes the whole user interface more graphical and un text-esque, and consequently more beautiful. These new summary cards also show more information about a link to users before they open it.
Card Layout not only allows users to know what they are clicking and to make their Timelines more appealing, it is also a great addition to advertisers, who gain more real estate to make stronger calls to action from Promote Tweets.
The only drawback that we may come across is that these cards are much bigger than the single line URL links most people are used to on Twitter and thus they take up more space on your Timeline. This implies that you will see less activity on your Timeline at a single time. Personally for me though, it isn’t that big of a deal.
The feature is yet to hit other mobile platforms like Windows Phone and there haven’t been any official statements about when Twitter apps for these other platforms will be revamped.
