What kind of links are people sharing on Twitter?

The most commonly shared links contain articles, according to a recent study. You’ll never guess the most common source for those articles.

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That’s what Twitter users told researchers at Carnegie Mellon in 2011. They said that only one-third of the tweets they receive are worthwhile.

Perhaps the 140-character messages would be worthwhile if they contained links. According to several studies, roughly 25 percent of all tweets contain a link. Not much when you think about. (Tweets with links, said self-described social scientist Dan Zarrella, are more likely to earn a retweet.)

What kind of links are people in that 25 percent sharing?

Difbot Page Classifier, an app that determines the page of any Web link, analyzed 750,000 links posted to Twitter. Turns out, images are the most commonly shared links, followed by articles, videos, and products.

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