Twitter is changing its API: Version 1.1 has application developers in uproar. 3rd-party clients especially will have a hard time making money in future, it's said.
In IT Blogwatch, bloggers weigh the pros and cons of the big, blue bird's prognostications.
By Richi Jennings: Your humble blogwatcher curated these bloggy bits for your entertainment. Not to mention: We're NASA and We Know It...
Jeremy Kirk snogs the green alien: [Surely, "reports the API 1.1 announcement"? -Ed.]
The technical changes are intended to grow applications centered around social CRM...media integration, social analytics and social influence ranking. ... Among the significant changes are limits on how many user tokens Twitter grants...which allow [apps] to pull data. ...developers [that exceed limits] will not be able to add additional users....
Twitter [says] it wants to create more consistent user experiences. [It] will...impose new "Display Requirements" [which] include...displaying Tweet actions such as reply, retweet and favorite and linking @usernames to the appropriate profile. MORE
Happy days? Andrew Cunningham sits on it: [Did you just jump the shark? -Ed.]
Among the most damaging of these new changes...is the evolution of Twitter's Display Guidelines into...Requirements. Developers are currently allowed some leeway...but the new requirements...may make it more difficult for third-party clients to differentiate themselves....
Even worse, Twitter will now require any...application preinstalled on a device to be "certified." ... The other changes...have deeper implications for services that pull data from Twitter. ... Not only does [it] require authentication, but it also implements new limits on how often applications can [call] the API....
[It's] disappointing to see Twitter turning its back on the...community that played such a large role in its...expansion. MORE
Twitter's Michael Sippey cups... [You're fired -Ed.]
In the coming weeks we will release version 1.1 of the Twitter API. ... [including] required authentication...per-endpoint rate-limiting...changes to our Developer Rules of the Road, especially around...Twitter clients....
[We] will require you to work with us directly if...your application will need more than one million individual user tokens. ... Additionally, if you are building a Twitter client...or are using our User Streams product, you will need our permission [for] more than 100,000....
We hope that all of this information gives you more clarity around where we are headed. MORE
So Marco Tabini translates Sippey's "weaselese":
We now need to turn our users’ timelines into a smorgasbord of ads in between posts from Justin Bieber and Oprah. ...we really want to be able to sell access to our data, so we’re going to...claim that authentication is going to keep your data secure....
We’ve tried to kill third-party clients...because we can’t compete with them...[so] we’re going to cut off developers at the knee...[and] pretend that you have full access. ... We look forward to forcing you to build a service, then destroy any chance of making money from it....
**** you. MORE
But James Peter says the changes are "mostly pretty good":
I was left thinking a lot of the changes were reasonable and made sense. ... The most useful API endpoints...will be dramatically increased. ... The search API [now] will...be rate limited in a way that will grow as your user base grows. ... Being forced to work with Twitter when you have a large number of users looks like a positive to me, not a negative....
With concrete rules we can always ensure we are in compliance. ... The changes announced today by Twitter are the next logical steps. ... They clearly want to own the consumer client space, but the rest of the market is free game....
My only request to Twitter is that they keep the lines of communication...very open. MORE
And Finally...
[hat tip: This is True]