Operation Twitstorm: Devs as friends or foes
Found on The Register on Saturday, 12 March 2011
Sarver's message says apps that replicate Twitter's "core functionality" are no longer welcome, but those that extend that functionality are.
From the app developers' point of view the new rules are a not-so-subtle "get lost". Their argument runs like this: we put together thousands of Twitter applications, many or most of them for free, and Twitter's ridden to success on our backs.
You, dear Twitter user, are only valuable in two roles: as the uncomplaining recipient of corporate, endorsed, API-compliant advertising, or as yet-another end user filling up a data mine.
It's amazing how much hype this 140 character bubble got. Sarver can't really do much against those who waste their time developing tools. Should he limit the API; devs can always make use of the HTTP protocol to access it. He could turn of HTTP too; that would probably be the best solution.