Going by a statement from Twitter's co-founder, Biz Stone, the Twitter service will soon see a new addition in its API - namely, the capability of the discretionary inclusion of geolocation data in tweets.

The Twitter move to embed geolocation data into tweets would be more than welcomed by the developers; as, presently, the developers of apps pertaining to geolocations - like Foursquare - have to hack location data into updates by linking them to Web pages. The new API will, therefore, help developers to give more precise information about a location, adding latitude and longitude to any tweet.

Elaborating on the forthcoming location-based API, Stone said in his Thursday post: "With accurate, tweet-level location data, you could switch from reading the tweets of accounts you follow to reading tweets from anyone in your neighborhood or city - whether you follow them or not. It's easy to imagine how this might be interesting at an event like a concert or even something more dramatic like an earthquake."

Stone further said that the new feature, which needs to be activated by choice, will be off by default and no precise location data will be stored for an extended period of time.

Given the fact that the location-based API will be an "opt-in," Stone said users concerned about privacy or security can give the app a miss!