Slashdot Mirror
Twitter Shuts Down JSON API and Names New CEO
An anonymous reader writes: This month Twitter is closing down the JSON endpoint API which thousands of third-party software and plugin developers have depended upon for years. The alternative Rest API offers data which is aggregated or limited in other ways, whilst the full-featured share data offered by Gnip (purchased last year by Twitter) can cost developers thousands per month to access — in one case up to £20,000 a month. The general objective seems to be to either drive users back to the core Twitter interface where they can be monetized via the social network's advertising, or to regain lost advertising by converting open source data — currently utilized a lot in scientific research — into premium information, offering the possibility for well-funded organizations to gain reputations as Twitter barometers without ever needing to expose the expensive, accurate share figures. The company also announced today that co-founder Jack Dorsey would be the new CEO.
This more affects folks who built their businesses around aggregating and analyzing data from various social media services. Sucks to be them, I guess.
Where's Gnop?
Yeah... I'm old.
"Never give up, for that is just the time and place when the tide will change." -Harriet Beecher Stowe ^_^
It does indeed.
The worst thing that ever happened to Twitter was the retweet, just like the worst thing that ever happened to facebook was "share". Both of these things dramatically reduced the usability and usefulness of those sites. It changed the social media from a fun way to keep up with friends to an avalanche of nonsense you don't care about with a few nuggets buried somewhere inside.
This is the lifecycle for anything cool, I guess. Birth > Cool > Widespread adoption > Monetization > Bloat > Death spiral
It's kind of like bands.
School > Bars > Halls > Your mom has heard of them > Greatest Hits released > Stadiums > She likes them > Lamer than Lame Jock McLame.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Maybe they should have tried it the other way round.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Almost never used it, and they're about to learn a hard, hard lesson.
Religion is what happens when nature strikes and groupthink goes wrong.
oh, you mean business that panders to marketing scum will be hurt.
crying a river over here for them, maybe I'll commit suicide over this travesty
or, maybe I'll chuck a marketer or two into the chicago river on my way to the train to cheer myself up, whatever
At this rate, the warnings of Richard Stallman in the past casually dismissed as the ranting of an extremist will soon be commonly held as wise and insightful (though still widely ignored by sheep-like consumers).
you were doing fine until you mentioned the two exceptions. please, you're still wasting part of your life and have room for improvement
My irrelevance to Twitter knows no bounds which pleases me greatly. I am nobody's target demographic.
Fifty years of Yippie! 1968-2018
Somewhere in there near the end is producing a "Christmas Album", and used for background music at a shopping center.
Depends on what you use Twitter for imo. If everyone retweets Uncle Charlie's ham sandwich that looks like Jesus then retweets are pretty worthless. But if it's for trading, retweeted news alerts are extremely valuable because you can catch a stock before it moves on the info.
In the bigger picture Twitter users are highly segmented. There's a huge difference between teens tweeting about relationships and professionals who have integrated the service into their daily lives. Following doctors and researchers for accurate biotech info is priceless, and many of them have translated that into intimate knowledge about the affected biotech stocks. Building a feed on the right people is worth a lot.
As a matter of fact I'd be willing to pony up $50 or more a month just to get the info from my feed that appears for "free" now (i.e. ad-supported). To follow Suzie and Mary discussing how Scott was so bitchy at school today? Not so much. If Twitter can figure out how to identify and treat the segments separately then much higher revenue should follow. e.g. Some type of "pro" service for professionals, and highly targeted brand saturation for Suzie and Mary.
Facebook? They can die in a fire.
For a moment there I only saw "Twitter Shuts Down"
Got my damn hopes up there for a second. :P
The retweet was a bad move? Am I missing something here? You should only see RTs from people you follow* and unless you're following people with "diarrhea of the mouth," why wouldn't you want to see their tweets? Then again, aside from several like-minded feminists and political/cultural types, I mostly follow news outlets and journalists. Most RTs I get are usually interesting or easily skipped.
*This doesn't count promoted tweets. Once, I got a few tweets for a doctor across the country from me. I tweeted him about the georaphical unlikeliness of my ever visiting him, and he said he'd check the analytics.
Defending IP by destroying access to it? That makes sense, RIAA/MPAA. Go to the corner until you can play nice!
I thought it would include a late-night infomercial...
(In the old days, the name "K-Tel" would herald the bitter end.)
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
LOL ... yeah, whatever.
Twitter's target demographic is people who believe their tweets are actually of any value.
I'm betting an absolutely huge majority of traffic on Twitter is completely pointless and inane ... "I'm going to the bathroom", "the poop is coming out", "meeting Bill and Larry for drinks". That's not "people with a life", that's inane and pointless drivel.
Questioning the value of this isn't about dottering neckbeards, it's about if the platform has much in the way of any real value for most of what it is used for, and also makes us ask "WTF is Twitter valued in the billions for again".
So, maybe all that's really happening is an overvalued company is looking to monetize and leverage synergies, and people who have created products around selling this stuff are getting burned ... the rest of it? Well, I suspect it's at least 22% crap about what those moronic Kardashians are doing now.
"People who have lives" my lily white ass. People who think tweeting means you have a life have no clue.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
In Soviet Russia, man gays you!
I've heard Siouxie and the Banshees in elevators, and not just, "Kiss Them For Me." I've heard Tones on Tail in shopping centers, and not just in Hot Topic or Spencer's Gifts.
It's funny to hear bands that were exceedingly controversial played as background music twenty years later. It shows one how quickly some changes can become acceptable.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
(moralistic tirade forthcoming)
**>>BELCH
(Kerry) even as he is jetting off for the TPP signing that is 100% guaranteed to remove whatever trivial impediments remain to frictionless off-shoring the last of our manufacturing base to whatever seething pollution hell-hole is cheapest this week.
The interesting part is that I was reading an article the other day about companies who are planning to save money by building automated factories in the West, so they no longer have to ship stuff thousands of miles from China.
International trade is about to collapse. But, then, you can't really expect politicians to be anything but twenty years behind the times.
Of course, the 'social media' bubble is about to collapse too.
Vladdy baby, we know it's you.
Now in the name of all that's holy, put your goddam shirt on already.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
I'm betting an absolutely huge majority of traffic on Twitter is completely pointless and inane ... "I'm going to the bathroom", "the poop is coming out", "meeting Bill and Larry for drinks".
This uninformed stereotype of twitter activity is outdated.
The vast majority of tweets today are links and retweets. Live example, I just looked at the 10 most recent tweets in my stream. The first 9 are links and the 10th is a comment about WeChat.
I follow about 50 people/groups/companies across the VMware world.
I've learned as much about new things there as I have anywhere else.
Sorry you don't see that as a reason to be on twitter.
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
Ronco fits in there somewhere. I don't remember exactly, and perhaps that's for the best.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Then again, aside from several like-minded feminists and political/cultural types, I mostly follow news outlets and journalists.
One of those... thanks for the warning.
I recall shopping for party supplies in a Hypermarché on the outskirts of Paris (southside, coincidentally) back in '92, and realizing that the "muzak" playing over the PA was Prince's "Sexy Muthafucka". This has never happened to me in North America.
I believe FB has already reached the bloat and I am anxiously awaiting the Death Spiral!
Not sure my spam filter can handle anymore "X updated their profile/status/job/etc...."
How do you find a link in google if you don't know what you're searching for? i.e. new information.
Sorry a discovery tool works better for me than you, but get your head out of your ass.
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
"Hey devs...fuck you ha ha ha ha ha!"
-Signed, Twitter
Personally this is one of those "...and nothing of value was lost" moments.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Oh noes! How will I live without access to posts by people letting the world know that they just had a slice of pizza and then took a dump in 140 characters or less.
Yep, pretty fucking tragic. Oh wait, no it's not.
Twitter: The confetti of the Internet.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Ronco fits in there somewhere. I don't remember exactly, and perhaps that's for the best.
Don''t you dare insult my Popeil Pocket Fisherman!
Now I'm off to give myself a groovy new haircut with my Flowbee.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
I'm betting an absolutely huge majority of traffic on Twitter is completely pointless and inane ... "I'm going to the bathroom", "the poop is coming out", "meeting Bill and Larry for drinks".
Agreed. Shit like, "Just had the most AMAZING burrito!"
Yeah, like I care about their burrito.
Twitter- Promoting the ADHD Generation Since ummm Whenever"
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
I'm betting an absolutely huge majority of traffic on Twitter is completely pointless and inane ... "I'm going to the bathroom", "the poop is coming out", "meeting Bill and Larry for drinks". That's not "people with a life", that's inane and pointless drivel.
I think you forgot #bm #whatarelief
People trying to make sentences out of hashtags has to end.
I don't know, but it works for me.
You're aware you have no obligation to follow morons, are you?
There's nothing like $HOME
Twitter: Foot. Gun. Aim gun at foot. FIRE!
AKA "ready, fire, aim"
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
LOL. How many teachers are teaching new stuff about VMware?
You know. Stuff developed/created in the last month or two?
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
You're aware you have no obligation to follow morons, are you?
I don't have a twitter account, so I couldn't follow morons even if I wanted to. :)
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Little known feature (for me, at least): you can disable retweets for specific users you follow. This single feature made it so I could follow users who are retweet-heavy, like pmarca. Instructions here.
Since I also use Tweetbot, I had to delete my cache for this to kick in, but it does work across third party clients.
Press X to JSON.
"'I'm going to the bathroom', 'the poop is coming out', 'meeting Bill and Larry for drinks'. That's not 'people with a life', that's inane and pointless drivel."
I dunno, it sounds like those folks are enjoying healthy bowel movements and meeting their friends for drinks while you are bitching about a social network on Slashdot. You might be a bit quick to cast the "not people with a life" stone.
So a social media site that everyone thinks they are 'entitled' to is monetizing the service to pay the bills. If everyone jumps ship, then it fails, so what. I'm waiting for all social media like this to fade into obscurity like the pet rock.
IIUC, traffic on twitter has been used to measure the spread of epidemics, so it's not totally worthless.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
your irrelevance than it does about twitter. People with a life, not dottering neckbeards, are twitter's target demographic.
You mean people who only have life if that life is validated by someone else.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
Much like Slashdot's target demographic is people who believe their posts are actually of any value.
You can say that about any form of communication. "Speaking is for people who think their words have value". Obvious point is obvious. And 90% of everything is crap, Twitter reflects that. So do Slashdot posts.
You can moderate what Slashdot posts you see by changing the score threshold. And you can moderate your Twitter stream by not following people who post about their fucking bowel movements. Of course, those people don't actually exist outside of your contrived example. Most people just share interesting links they read.
"Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
It's kind of like bands.
School > Bars > Halls > Your mom has heard of them > Greatest Hits released > Stadiums > She likes them > Lamer than Lame Jock McLame.
Not quite. After halls it's not "heard of them" but "your mom *hates* them" THEN stadiums, THEN "Greatest Hits". Everybody knows that a "greatest hits" album signifies the death of "cool" for the band ;-) - i.e. loss of "underground" status. After "Greatest hits" THEN it's "your mom likes them".. After which , really, instead of "lamer than whatever" it's "the $0.99 bins" - a MONTH after release !
We've blogged about the infrastructure change that led to this decision https://blog.twitter.com/2015/hard-decisions-for-a-sustainable-platform - I'd also point out that as undocumented and unsupported endpoint, probably never a good idea to rely on this data. No plans to change other JSON endpoints on the API.
Disclaimer: I work as a Developer Advocate at Twitter