Twitter timeline now shows tweets favorited by people you follow

Twitter has started adding tweets to your timeline that have been favorited by people you follow. Now your Twitter timeline will also show anything that the micro blogging site feels like you should know about.

Twitter has even formally changed its definition of your home timeline on its site.

Earlier, Twitter had this definition on it’s “What’s a Twitter timeline?” page:

What’s in your home timeline:

• When you sign in to Twitter, you’ll land on your home timeline.
• Your home timeline displays a stream of Tweets from accounts you have chosen to follow on Twitter.
• The newest updates are at the top. You can reply, Retweet, or favorite a Tweet from within the timeline.
• Clicking anywhere on a Tweet in your timeline expands the Tweet, so you can see photos, videos, and other information related to that Tweet.

Note: You may see content from accounts you do not follow, such as promoted Tweets, Retweets from accounts you follow, or content that may be relevant to you. Read more about promoted Tweets here, and Retweets here.

A recent update to the page has added this paragraph:

Additionally, when we identify a Tweet, an account to follow, or other content that’s popular or relevant, we may add it to your timeline. This means you will sometimes see Tweets from accounts you don’t follow. We select each Tweet using a variety of signals, including how popular it is and how people in your network are interacting with it. Our goal is to make your home timeline even more relevant and interesting.

Twitter has also reportedly been testing showing news stories that may not be from people that you follow. Earlier, these feeds were limited to other sections of Twitter's desktop and mobile services and allowed you to opt-out of these. Now Twitter says that users will be able to see your friend's favorites, but also tweets that may be unrelated to your friends. The change is similar to Facebook’s practice of auto-posting what your friends like or have commented on.

Twitter has also started showing "promoted video ads" that allows advertisers to post videos on the micro-blogging site and would even allow them to measure the "reach and effectiveness" of the content. Twitter stated that it will offer a “cost per view” model for advertisers. The micro blogging site has also started showing Embedded Tweets on the web. This will make your timeline less cluttered and will help you check the content of a linked tweet immediately without having to click through to find out.

Source: Twitter