Links to articles and pages on the web make sense again on X, as headlines and titles returned to preview cards shown in tweets in the digital land formerly known as Twitter. 

Those still brave enough to wade through the mire that is X may have spotted the change already, with headline text unceremoniously returning to link thumbnails only a few months after owner Elon Musk did away with them in October. At the time he claimed the move would "improve the esthetics" (sic) of his cyber-clubhouse. 

Musk reversed course on the policy in November, revealing that "in an upcoming release, X will overlay title in the upper portion of the image of a URL card." Now that day has come, although the title is in the bottom left corner.

Of course, the change has drawn the ire of some X users, with complainants saying the returning link preview headlines are too small. There's something to be said for that - link text appears to be the same basic size and format as text on the X web app, so headlines don't stand out from other text on X at all.

Still, it's better than no title, which was an annoying user experience.

In addition, the headlines aren't given much space, and are limited to a single line before excess is truncated. X didn't respond to questions about the U-turn - not even with a poop emoji, as used to be the style.

As of writing, the change is inconsistent: at first it appeared to affect the Twitter web client, and the X iOS app didn't bring headlines back despite being updated earlier today. And right now, at time of publication, the titles have gone again from the X website and yet are still visible on Android.

Your mileage may vary.

Speaking of establishing the value of a bad decision

Hoping to get a sense of the financial health of X as we march into 2024? Look no further than investment firm Fidelity's monthly holdings report, which estimates the value of its own stake in Musk's social media empire to be at another all-time low. 

According to the latest Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund report [PDF], released at the end of December for data through November 30, Fidelity now estimates its X/Twitter investment, which it acquired in October 2022 for roughly $19.2m, is worth just $5.6m - a drop of 71 percent. 

Lest you forget, November was the month X owner Elon Musk told advertisers to "go f**k yourself," which may have contributed to the decline. 

By Fidelity's reckoning, that means the microblogging platform is worth even less than the one-third of its $44 billion purchase value the firm estimated the network was worth in May 2023.

The amount, type and level of insider info that Fidelity may have and used to value X's financial performance isn't immediately clear - and X didn't answer questions about the firm's valuation either. ®

https://www.theregister.com//2024/01/03/x_headlines_valuation/