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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.
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
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).
Shut down the CEO and name a new JSON API?
Dunno - seems like the latter happens every time Oracle coughs up a new version of JRE... can't argue with the former, though.
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.