Why Twitter Moments is a Big Deal

I have to confess that I am a news addict. And have been for a long while.

Until recently, this has meant scampering to news sites like cnn.com on a regular basis, or scurrying to newspaper sites like New York Times or the Washington Post, just to know the happenings in the world this day, or this hour.

Yes, Twitter broke real time news, but it was too messy to manage. The timeline was moving too fast. There were too many opinions on too many sides of a topic. It was very hard to get a grip on the medium.

Until Twitter Moments.

Curated tweets— including relevant media — that summarize “what’s happening now” have made it easier, simpler and more convenient to consume news. I am no longer lost in my timeline or getting deluged with noise.

This has meant that my attention and time have surely but steadily shifted from noisy news media to Twitter moments. It has become a take-off point for reading and watching anything worthwhile. It is becoming a daily, even hourly habit, and my twitter moments usage has increased exponentially.

Now, it is not that Twitter Moments does not have its issues.

I would love for more countries, cities and towns to be covered, and for more regional and local news to be included. It goes without saying that it needs much better search capabilities. And it is kind of shocking that you cannot zoom in on images within moments. Twitter really needs to develop deeper and broader relationships with broadcast channels and content creators to feature better video content within moments.

It is also critical that at some point, Twitter provides each of its users the tools to curate and create their own moments that others can subscribe to. Not all the company curated moments are great, and democratizing this process will help let the very best bubble to the top.

But.

Moments gets Twitter closer to realizing its vision of being the real time information network where news breaks. And where normal people, with no expertise in social media or tech, can listen to all sides of an issue with minimal noise and maximum signal, and without being lost like deer in the headlights on how to use and get value from the medium. It can also evolve to be the prime destination from where people launch into live streaming of sports, special events, breaking news, etc.

This makes Twitter a publisher of curated multimedia content on breaking news. Which is the same business as that of mainstream news TV channels, but without having to do the heavy-duty journalistic work to find and report the news.

Of course, the big question for public market investors is if and how they can monetize it, and if they can create a symbiotic relationship with mainstream news media. Notwithstanding, there is no doubt that Twitter Moments is a harbinger of something very special that is likely to change how the next generation thinks about and consumes news.