Twitter responds to IFFFT
techcrunch.com
techcrunch.com
Moving on to an entirely disingenuous non-apology ("i'm sorry you were offended" vs. "i'm sorry I offended you"), it doesn't get much better. Then on to an appeal to authority - we tried it with other developers and they didn't care at all.
The thing is, I can't criticise from a business level. I have no idea what their internal world looks like (we can all have our own guesses). But the message is inept at best. The upshot is that it's hard to imagine anyone building something (innovative or not) on the Twitter platform. If it's within the TOCs today, would this message give you confidence that it will be next week?
By attempting to kick out half of your hangers on, you end up kicking out all of your hangers on. Seems like a lesson worth heeding for giants and hangers on alike.
If the proportion of API calls are increasingly from Twitter's own apps, does that count?
Also related, this quote from @dickc:
> Twitter's committed to stay open & is building free tools to access the stream, saying it's closing misses bigger picture
(via https://twitter.com/saila/status/249248288472199169)
Maybe I am indeed missing the big picture but I feel like their words aren't matching up with their actions. Unless they mean they'll be open to consumers and getting more users onto the network, without consideration to third-party developers who want to create their own vision on top of the API.
(I acknowledge that Twitter has the right to do all this and more--that's not my point.)
I've said since the beginning of these recent actions that there's going to be another shoe to drop (the last weeks' actions all being the first shoe). I'll say now that "the big picture" he mentions but neglects to describe is indeed this other shoe.
> http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/20/ifttt-has-actually-been-in-...
It could also be they want more ads, and 3rd party usage of the API would bypass that.
If anyone wanted to buy them, now would be a good time.
Charge, but let people do whatever they want with their own data ... give them access to their full history of their own tweets and maybe some other advanced features. Meanwhile let everyone use twitter.com for free if they want.
The Twitter CEO's statements are reminiscent of the BlackBerry co-CEOs laughing at the iPhone's lack of tactile keyboard.
Everyone is assuming it's because they want to lock down their platform... & lock it down along what seem pretty moveable and arbitrary lines. Why else would they do it? I'm a casual observer, but I have been following pretty carefully, and it's completely unclear to me.
So -- If it's not, they should just say. If it is, the Twitter developer ecosystem has plenty of reason to be worried about their homework.
Think of the several monetization "experiments" of Facebook: ads, sponsored likes, sponsored posts, page offers, ecc They were been possibile only because Facebook manage the way his data is displayed across all platform.
It's unfortunate because it was a hugely useful platform for "protocol" uses. It's an easy way to tie together two incompatible systems, and a good way to provide automated notifications without additional clients.
The outrage is because they changed their possession and it's serving as a warning to other developers who are interested in developing on their platform. It's important to point out when a business is hostile or friendly to API developers so they'll know if it's worth their time to develop a product based on said API.
1) Criticism of Twitter for implementing a policy that has generated so much ill-will for the company, and essentially prevented 3rd party devs from solidifying Twitter as a kind of a microblogging platform of the Net. Clearly Twitter believes this will serve them better. Most people disagree.
2) Warning for trusting closed platforms.