Bring Tweets To Your Content
Have you ever wanted to quote or share a tweet but had to painstakingly take screenshots of said tweet, upload them, and then embed the images in your post? Today we are launching a new feature dubbed Twitter Blackbird Pie. The new feature makes displaying tweets in all their glory as simple as pasting a link in your post as shown below.
Bring Tweets To Your Content: http://wp.me/pf2B5-1r4—
WordPress.com (@wordpressdotcom) November 05, 2010
What is Blackbird Pie?
Twitter Blackbird Pie is a method of displaying tweets as rich full content rather than as just simple URLs or images. With Blackbird Pie Twitter, hashtags link to search pages and usernames link to twitter profiles. An individual tweet, or pie, includes all the details, design, and information that a single tweet page would include.
As a blogger, Blackbird Pie offers a great way to engage Twitter on your site and bring discussion to your blog.
Get Going
To embed a tweet in your blog, all you need to do is visit the tweet on Twitter.com that you would like to use, copy the URL from the address bar, and paste it into your post on a line by itself. WordPress.com will do the rest and your link will be converted to a full tweet once we pull the relevant data (there may be a short delay).
Twitter Blackbird Pie will work for posts and comments throughout WordPress.com. For self-hosted WordPress blogs we recommend the Twitter Blackbird Pie plugin which we modified to work on WordPress.com.
Nov 5th at 5:31 pm
This is a very nice idea. Good thinking.
Nov 5th at 5:36 pm
This is a genius idea and one I know I will get a lot of use out! Thanks WP!
Nov 5th at 5:39 pm
Another innovative idea from WordPress!! I think Twitter is a great way to attract people to your blog!
Nov 5th at 5:42 pm
What an amazing idea! I guess that means I now must return to that long-defunct Twitter account…
Nov 5th at 5:43 pm
Another nice integration. – BTW: You could add Google Buzz to Sharing.
Nov 5th at 5:45 pm
Very cool! Love this new tool. Thank you!
Nov 5th at 5:45 pm
Ah, WordPress and Twitter. Simply a great combination
Nov 5th at 5:47 pm
This is cool.
Bonus would be if there was a plugin that could aggregate your tweets and write them as posts…
Double Bonus would be if it could aggregate via hash tags imagine using that with p2? That would be an awesome back channel site tool for conferences, classrooms etc. Maybe there already is a plugin just haven’t seen one out there.
Nov 5th at 5:47 pm
I am very confused how this works and what it will look like, etc. Maybe more of a visual would be helpful.
Nov 5th at 5:59 pm
There is an example in the post.
Nov 5th at 5:50 pm
Saw Blackbird Pie first on the twitter blog and just sighed wishing we could use it. Thanks for making this wish come true.
Nov 5th at 5:50 pm
Right now, it’s not working for me. What’s wrong with my edit? http://schoenswetter.wordpress.com/2010/11/05/2343/
Nov 5th at 6:06 pm
You had the URL linked. Removed the link HTML and it works now.
Nov 5th at 5:52 pm
Awesome! The features-train just keeps rolling on out this Season. Keep up the great work guys!
Nov 5th at 5:53 pm
Great idea, worth tweeting about.
Nov 5th at 5:57 pm
This sounds like a really useful feature, I’m pretty sure i’ll incorporate some tweets into my blog postings in the near future. Once again a brilliant addition to the ever growing feature list. Thank you wordpress.
Nov 5th at 6:14 pm
Excellent stuff as ever, this will be very handy! Thanks.
Nov 5th at 6:15 pm
And I DIE. LOVE this….thank you so much!
Nov 5th at 6:18 pm
How do I get the URL for a specific tweet? All I see in the address bar is the URL for the twitter profile, but not the specific tweet I want. When I right-click, I see no option to copy the link URL either.
Nov 5th at 6:20 pm
If you click on the time listed with a Tweet it will take you to that Tweet’s URL.
Nov 5th at 6:25 pm
Great idea. Having this feature for Facebook too would be even better though.
Nov 5th at 6:31 pm
Aha! It all makes such perfect sense now…We’re all being slowly brain washed into worshiping WordPress aren’t we? And now with this great feature, i fear it maybe too late to save ourselves!
Nov 5th at 6:39 pm
PS…can we add a twitter widget?
Nov 5th at 6:43 pm
Sure. We already have one.
http://en.support.wordpress.com/widgets/twitter-widget/
Nov 5th at 6:41 pm
Nice. Can this show up in email as well? Currently it doesn’t.
Nov 6th at 7:11 pm
We’re working to make this happen.
Nov 8th at 4:52 pm
Should be working for email subscriptions now.
Nov 5th at 6:45 pm
Oh YES, dreams do come true!!! THANK YOU for this. You guys rock!!!
Nov 5th at 6:49 pm
So, how long is the delay. I think I followed the directions accurately…my post is still showing the url instead of the tweet. Am I missing something?
Nov 5th at 7:11 pm
A bug with the ratings was causing a problem for your post. Should be working now.
Nov 5th at 6:54 pm
How long is the delay? (Unless I did something incorrectly)
Nov 5th at 7:15 pm
You had some other HTML around the Tweet URL in your post. You can switch over to the HTML editor to check that. I fixed the post for you.
Nov 5th at 6:56 pm
I would use this…if I was allowed to have a Twitter account. XD
But if I ever get one, I will certainly put this feature to good use! Thanks, WordPress!
Nov 5th at 7:03 pm
So the plugin for WordPress is different because it does not seem to include the ‘Retweet’ link into the embedded tweet. Would have been cool if it was the same version running here.
Nov 5th at 7:19 pm
Can you guys do the same thing for the twitter widget on wordpress.com ? Right now its kinda just…boring text and nothing else. Something like a nice design or something similar would be great!
Nov 5th at 7:22 pm
The problem with the widget is that there isn’t much room in the sidebar. Maybe something in the future.
Nov 5th at 7:44 pm
Could someone let me know what I’m doing wrong? Thanks in advance.
http://vitajex.wordpress.com/2010/11/05/twittiot-tweetyour16yearoldself/
Nov 5th at 7:46 pm
You need to remove the HTML links from the URLs. It will only work if you have the URL on the line and nothing else.
Nov 5th at 7:46 pm
Now THIS is fantastic. I will make great use of it and I love the name.
If I link to a tweet by someone other than myself will they somehow be notified that it has been linked?
Nov 5th at 7:47 pm
There is not any type of notification.
Nov 5th at 7:47 pm
Think about it: re the instruction “paste it into your post on a line by itself” which line would that be? The Subject/Title line of your post? a line in the box/test section of the post? Let’s try to be more specific and show an example.
Nov 5th at 7:48 pm
It goes in the content of the post or comment.
Nov 5th at 7:57 pm
Dang, I could’ve used this about a month ago! Will certainly be using it in the future, and now I’ll have to edit that post
Nov 5th at 8:33 pm
Silly name “Blackbird Pie”. Tweet Pie would have worked. Something with tweet in it.
Nov 5th at 9:18 pm
Amazing idea!
Nov 5th at 10:21 pm
I’m impressed with all the innovation coming from WordPress these days – this and the FoodPress (and not just because I was one of the earliest bloggers with a featured post on the latter!).
Nov 5th at 10:24 pm
So Sweet!
Nov 5th at 11:06 pm
Finally! Thank you very much.
Nov 5th at 11:49 pm
Nice! Thanks. I’m still wishing and waiting for that Twitpic widget to appear though.
Nov 6th at 12:09 am
what happens if a quoted tweet is deleted by its author ? at least a screenshots can prove that it was indeed published.
Nov 6th at 12:12 am
We will still be able to show the tweet.
Nov 6th at 1:28 am
And if the person change his photo or background on twitter?
Nov 6th at 1:50 pm
The Tweet in our system will show the old images.
Nov 6th at 1:30 am
Excellent!! I was needing this week ago! Now a can create a good post with this!
Thx!
Nov 6th at 1:53 am
Yay! Great idea! Definitely going to use this.
Nov 6th at 2:17 am
This is a pretty sweet feature. I like the formatting of it so that it looks the same as it would be on Twitter. Well done, guys.
Nov 6th at 3:05 am
You guys just keep on keeping on. Thanks!
Nov 6th at 3:30 am
Thanks this is really nice. I’m already using this.
Nov 6th at 4:10 am
Very cool! This is one feature I never thought to ask for, but it’s definitely going to be a very useful feature!
Nov 6th at 4:52 am
Wow. I’ve been looking for a way to “embed” my tweets for a while now, then suddenly there’s a way and it’s amazing!
Nov 6th at 4:54 am
SWEEEEEEEEET!
Nov 6th at 6:15 am
Sweet idea
Only from WordPress geniuses 
Nov 6th at 6:29 am
Interesting. Will try it out. Thanks!
Nov 6th at 6:43 am
Wow!! Wwitter, the microblogging site now working with WordPress. That’s great.
Nov 6th at 7:52 am
Thank you Justin, for this!
Thanks to the whole team for doing what they do and the enthusiasm it brings. ♥
Nov 6th at 8:25 am
Nice. I’ll try it out for sure!
Nov 6th at 10:21 am
Good News! I like it! Now I need to try it.
Nov 6th at 12:01 pm
I never knew you could get the URL of an individual tweet – thanks for the info and the new feature
Nov 6th at 12:42 pm
Great feature. The first thing I did was link to a tweet and then delete the tweet…just to check if it still shows on the blog.
And it does
Any way to turn the Twitter background ‘off’ in the blogpost? I don’t really like that background to show through on my blog.
Nov 6th at 1:56 pm
There is not a way to turn off the background.
Nov 6th at 12:55 pm
Very nice.
One suggestion. It doesn’t convert the tweet in the emails that are sent to subscribers, it just shows as a regular hyperlink there. That means that people that read the posts from their inbox are going to be missing this one. Can we get that added too?
Thanks!
Nov 6th at 7:12 pm
We are working on an update to make it work in email subscriptions as well.
Nov 6th at 1:55 pm
Love this. This is awesome! I’m one of those who do the screenshot thing! Twitter Blackbird Pie will infinitely make things easier! Hooray! Thanks. =)
Nov 6th at 2:40 pm
Genius! I’m going to have to try this out once I find a relevant thing to post a tweet about. I’m by no means an expert blogger but I sure love WordPress.com and don’t think I could have found a better site to put my son’s memorial page on.
Thanks so much for making this site, you have no idea how much having my blog helps me cope!
Nov 6th at 2:59 pm
How do I “visit” the tweet? I highlight it and the address is http://twitter.com/#. I totally don’t get your explanation.
Nov 6th at 3:13 pm
When you are looking at a Tweet on Twitter.com, look under the Tweet’s content in the lower left. You’ll see a date, ’20 minutes ago,’ or something similar. Click an that link to visit the individual Tweet where you can copy the URL from your browser’s address bar.
Nov 6th at 7:14 pm
Brilliant !!!
Nov 6th at 8:32 pm
Nick,
Thank you. When you pointed me in the right place to get the address, that made all the difference. Up and running. Worked just fine. Thank you again letting us know where to find the right address to use.
Nov 6th at 9:52 pm
Wow, that is really cool! I just started Twitter , but I am super excited to use this when the time comes!
Nov 6th at 10:37 pm
OMG. This new feature is sick! <3<3<3
Nov 7th at 1:33 am
What a great idea! Thanks
Nov 7th at 5:14 am
That’s amazing. Thanks for this!
Nov 7th at 2:50 pm
Real cool concept, I love it.
Nov 7th at 2:56 pm
Question, will this also work in a text widget for the sidebar?
Nov 7th at 3:15 pm
No, there is not enough room in text widgets for the display.
Nov 7th at 3:40 pm
Awesome, I just tried it and i like it a lot. It makes it way easier.
Nov 7th at 4:43 pm
Hey, I’m not sure I get this. What’s the difference between this and having a twitter widget on my page that shows my tweets?
Nov 7th at 7:41 pm
This is for showing one specific Tweet in your content. It will show with the account’s user image and their custom colors and background. See the example in our post.
Nov 7th at 6:08 pm
Great tool and I’ve started using it immediately. Thanks!
Nov 7th at 7:06 pm
This is awesome! I love it!! <3
Nov 7th at 8:10 pm
Once I learned how to get the Tweet’s URL, this works great! Love it
Nov 8th at 2:28 am
Looooovvvee it! Thanks!
Nov 8th at 5:30 am
Nicely done.
Nov 8th at 5:35 am
Excellent. Once again you come up with a useful feature that I didn’t even know I wanted, but now that I’ve got it I plan to use it a lot.
Nov 8th at 6:51 am
Oh, this is WAY too cool! Thanks for making this feature available!
Nov 8th at 8:30 am
Pretty good idea, excellent stuff as ever!
Nov 8th at 12:17 pm
Great idea. I also have WordPress blogs that I host myself, so not being able to use Twitter on my WordPress.com blog has been limiting.
Tweets still are short and limited, so being able to include them in a nicely formatted fashion makes sense, and it’s a great enhancement.
Nov 8th at 1:06 pm
Great idea, the more integration the better. Good work and thank you
Nov 8th at 1:34 pm
Sounds great! Certainly something I’ll be putting to use soon! Btw, are you thinking of bringin the FaceBook Like-box for pages to wordpress soon? The little share button is neat, but….
Nov 8th at 3:30 pm
You can use Facebook Like and our Sharing on pages. See http://en.support.wordpress.com/sharing/
Nov 8th at 5:03 pm
This is definately a a useful feature, the more twitter integration the better!
Nov 8th at 5:07 pm
Worked wonders. Well done. Loved it.
Nov 8th at 5:43 pm
Thanks for the new tweet feature. It is functional and I want to use it a lot. I’d like to control its size. Currently, it uses my 700px wide posting area. Being able to scale its size will make it even better. I frequently use tables to place copy where I want it. My testing finds the tweet URL does not work within a table. So, may we have scaling and/or the ability to use this feature in tables. Thanks and please keep the enhancements coming. –jim
Nov 8th at 7:46 pm
As long as the link is on its own line you can wrap it in a table (or a div). Just make sure whatever element is surrounding it is on the line above and below the tweet. I was able to control the width this way.
Nov 8th at 7:03 pm
great idea!! im just curious like some others how long the delay is? i have it on a line by itself, its still just showing the url link. http://babe917.wordpress.com/2010/11/08/213/
Nov 8th at 7:12 pm
4get the above question i just figured out why it wasn’t posting. if the person has their twitter posts protected, it wont show up then right? thats why we just see link?
Nov 8th at 7:42 pm
This is correct. If a tweet is marked as “private” we can’t get access to it and the post will remain as a link.
Nov 8th at 7:46 pm
Well done!
Nov 8th at 8:07 pm
finally!
Nov 8th at 8:41 pm
This is cool
Nov 8th at 10:15 pm
Nice, nice idea. ^^
Nov 8th at 11:28 pm
Eventually I’ll find usefulness for my Twitter account and make use of this. For those who are active on Twitter, this is surely beneficial for them.
Nov 8th at 11:30 pm
WordPress continues to amaze me!