While Twitter has had expanded tweets for photos and videos, it's been necessary to click through to full news articles to see any of their content, sometimes even for the headline. A newly-launched update to the desktop and mobile web versions of Twitter is making that at-a-glance reading easier. Major traditional outlets like the New York Times, Der Spiegel or Time now show a brief snippet of an article when the linking tweet is given a click. More Internet-focused sources such as BuzzFeed and TMZ are also in the batch, and videos from the likes of BET and Dailymotion will play in-line. Android and iPhone users will see the same expansion from their native apps in the near future, although we're already weeping quietly for attention spans everywhere.

Update: If you're craving shots taken with a Lytro camera, the company has revealed that its interactive, infinite-focus photos are included in the expanded tweet collection.

Twitter brings expanded news tweets to the web, makes skimming articles all too easy (update: Lytro too) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Jun 2012 20:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.