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"Twitter is beginning a preliminary run of annotations, a feature that will add an almost infinite range of data types to tweets.\nDevelopers building apps using Twitter's Streaming API will be the first to see the new functionality; end users may have to wait a couple weeks.\n\"We will test Streaming API Tweet Annotation as early as next week,\" wrote Twitter infrastructure employee John Kalucki in a Google Groups thread relating to the Twitter APIs. \"All streaming clients, including user streams preview clients, should expect empty annotations and the rare populated annotation during arbitrary test periods.\"\nIf these tests are stable, Twitter will leave annotations on for the forseeable future.\nAnnotations were first announced from the stage at Chirp, Twitter's developer conference held in April.\nRyan Sarver, Twitter\u2019s director of platform, said then that app developers would soon be able to add annotations of any kind to tweets. These annotations could include metadata of any kind. \nSince annotations are just a format for attaching more data to a tweet, the ball has been left in developers' courts to decide what kinds of apps they build to showcase what kinds of metadata. The idea is that emergent behavior and apps will surface in a trickle-up fashion rather than Twitter forecasting users' wants and needs then dictating user behaviors by narrowing the spectrum of metadata available with tweets.\nTweets can contain multiple annotations of any kind as long as the attached information doesn't exceed 512 bytes. Twitter has recommended developers start out with annotations about location, websites, reviews, music, films, products, securities (a.k.a. stock), events and a few other topics, as well.\nTo learn more, check out this slightly technical but comprehensible overview.\nWe can't wait to see what developers come up with as annotations become a permanent part of Twitter's API. What kinds of data are you most excited about being able to attach to your tweets?\n[img credit: tsevis]\n\n\nFor more technology coverage, follow Mashable Tech on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook\n\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2010/06/02/twitter-annotations/>