Twitter and Google to offer instant articles feature

Technology giant Google is working with social media service Twitter as well as major publishers such as The New York Times to help publishers display instant articles to those using their service via a mobile phone.

Helping publishers

The new format, which will enable mobile users to quickly open stories  once they have clicked on a Twitter or Google search link, is due to be rolled out with a group of publishers this autumn. It is reportedly a response to similar features, such as Facebook’s Instant Articles.

The partnership has been formed in a bid to make it easier for publishers to share their work on mobile devices.

A source told the tech news site recode: “The world needs an answer to proprietary instant articles, and Twitter and Google could provide it.”

How does it differ to similar projects?

According to recode, Google and Twitter will be making their publishing tools as an “open source project”, and aim to persuade various tech companies to use it. Furthermore, compared to other mobile publishing schemes, Google and Twitter will not host publisher’s content but instead readers will be shown “cached Web pages” from publishers’ sites.

Furthermore, in contrast to Facebook’s Instant Articles, Google and Twitter will not present their scheme as a branded product.