Twitter unveiled a new feature today that allow tweets to be embedded in posts on the web, instead of forcing bloggers and content producers to take screen shots and post them as images. (Warning, that link seems to be up and down with all of the attention today.)

The move could make it more visually appealing (and easier) for journalists and bloggers to cite tweets in pieces gauging public opinion or to get a quick reaction to an event.

With high-profile Twitter accounts now verified by the company, quoting prominent sources like entertainers or athletes could be easier and conceivably eliminate so-called "middle men" like PR reps or agents and lawyers. Writers could simple insert the code generated through the Twitter widget where a quote appears in a story.

Here's one of our tweets today embedded with the widget:

Interesting PR prob: Your former employee is the alleged Times Square bomber (abc news): http://bit.ly/caEcG0less than a minute ago via webO'Dwyer's
odwyerpr



In teasing the new service yesterday, Twitter pointed to an article on ReadWriteWeb that used tweets as quotes, which, Twitter says, "helps 'chunk' the piece both visually and logically; we think it makes it easier to read."