Jack Dorsey and Twitter: Can you have a part-time product visionary?

No, you can't.

Interpreting some of Twitter’s API changes – Marco.org

Marco Arment:

I sure as hell wouldn’t build a business on Twitter, and I don’t think I’ll even build any nontrivial features on it anymore.

Great advice. And the same advice I've been giving to the folks I advise since day one.

What Twitter's API Announcement Could Have Said

I'm not going to quote any of Anil Dash's fantastic piece, because I want you to read the entire thing for yourself, right now.

I bet after reading it, you feel a bit different about Twitter's API changes.

The best part of Anil's piece: it's as interesting and clear to developers as it is to lay people.

DON’T PANIC

Tapbots Blog:

There’s been a lot of fear, uncertainty and doubt generated by Twitter’s latest announcement. I wanted to let everyone know that the world isn’t ending, Tweetbot for Mac is coming out soon, Tweetbot for iOS isn’t going anywhere. So sit down, grab a towel and let’s go over some of these API changes.

StockTwits Founder "Disappointed" to See Twitter "Hijack" Cashtags

Jon Russell:

With Twitter adopting StockTwit’s flagship feature however, it remains to be seen whether (and how) the startup will be affected going forward. While these scenarios can be the death of ‘the small guy, the alternative argument, put forward by Lindzon, is that its more qualitative and targeted audience will be more appealing than Twitter for users, advertisers and others.

Allow me to reiterate my advice for would-be Twitter-platform-developers: Do not build a business on the Twitter platform.

Apple Is Said to Discuss an Investment in Twitter - NYTimes.com

I've mentioned on a few shows that Apple would only do this kind of deep integration if it could have a stake in Twitter's future.

No API For You: Twitter Shuts Off “Find Friends” Feature For Instagram | TechCrunch

This is basic stuff.

Instagram has just announced 80 million users and a new app update; Noticeably missing in the update? The “Find Your Friends” on Twitter feature, which allowed users to follow the same people they follow on Twitter on Instagram.

Of course this has been closed off by Twitter. Twitter is not an open platform, and this is the kind of feature that Twitter wants you to use Twitter (and its own apps) to do.

The “Tweet Photo” feature is still available.

Of course it's still available, because pushing data into Twitter ads value to Twitter.

Twitter Is Working on a Way to Retrieve Your Old Tweets

NY Times:

“We’re working on a tool to let users export all of their tweets,” Mr. Costolo said in a meeting with reporters and editors at The New York Times on Monday. “You’ll be able to download a file of them.”

Oh cool, a file!

Twitter Engineering: Improving performance on twitter.com

I missed this when they announced it a few weeks ago, and noticed it for the first time today:

The first thing that you might notice is that permalink URLs are now simpler: they no longer use the hashbang (#!). While hashbang-style URLs have a handful of limitations, our primary reason for this change is to improve initial page-load performance.

Thanks to everybody who sent me the link to this.

Twitter Ends LinkedIn Partnership, Who's Next? - Mike Isaac - News - AllThingsD

I believe Twitter will cut off every integration and relationship that they don't feel is valuable to them. This is the risk companies take when building services that rely on a third party. The idea of starting a business that relies on Twitter integration (or Facebook integration) seems like a bad idea these days.

Tweetbot for Mac confirmed as first image surfaces on Twitter

Can't tell much from this photo, but I'm looking forward to giving it a try.

Twitter hits 400 million tweets per day, mostly mobile | Internet & Media - CNET News

With this much mobile traffic, it's abundantly clear that Twitter did the right thing when it acquired Tweetie.

Twitter Said to Expect $1 Billion in Ad Revenue in 2014 - Bloomberg

Bloomberg:

Twitter based the forecasts on expected advertising demand, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the numbers are private. The San Francisco-based company could change or miss the forecasts, the people said.

This statement just oozes confidence.