Tie that visualization in with the fact that the new tabs (in particular the new spotlight on favorited tweets) will help assign pieces of content social relevance—i.e. what people are finding most important—and I think that Twitter users will acclimate quickly to the new, image-infused cross stream.
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Twitter can, of course, muck this up pretty easily. People are already wary of advertising seeping into their streams. Will they be less excited when Ashton Kutcher recommends you follow Nike in bright shiny images? Yeah, probably. Maybe not.
Still, it’s as heavy an update as Twitter’s undergone since they began switching users over to “New Twitter,” but it doesn’t seem so radical a departure, as much as a natural progression for the social network. My guess is that Twitter will become better at what it already is: an information stream based on impressions. A side story to keep your eyes on will be how this will affect the mobile experience, where screen economy is far less of a luxury.
Chris Gayomali is a reporter at TIME. Find him on Twitter at @chrigz, on Facebook, or on Google+. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.