Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) is letting users create customized news feeds around real-time events as the microblogging service aims to boost engagement on the site.
Custom timelines will help users collect tweets around conversations, television shows or breaking news so messages that are of most interest will float to the top, the San Francisco-based company said Tuesday in a blog post.
“When the conversation around an event or topic takes off on Twitter, you have the opportunity to create a timeline that surfaces what you believe to be the most noteworthy, relevant tweets,” the post said.
Twitter, which held its stock market debut last week, is investing in products to keep users on the site for longer and lure advertisers as it competes with Facebook Inc. for social- media ad sales. Twitter’s research and development costs surged 170 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, and the company spent more than half its revenue on R&D.
Twitter fell 2.3 percent to $41.90 at the close in New York on Tuesday. The stock has climbed 61 percent since it started trading Nov. 7, in the biggest technology initial public offering since Facebook’s last year.
