Twitter recently made a whole host of changes to its API. Many of these changes have been meant to limit the access to its API, a move which has irked a lot of developers. The developer community took to the web to protest over the new changes which resulted in completely eliminating some apps, given the restrictions they introduced.
The micro-blogging network’s CEO has now stated in a recent talk that the API changes were meant to help Twitter become a ‘deeper platform.’
Speaking on the occasion, Twitter’s CEO, Dick Costolo said, “As our users were starting to adopt Twitter on more than one platform…we realized we have to have a consistent owned and operated experience.” He said that the changes were meant to send out a message that “there are all these value added services that we’d like you to starting building that our customers and users are going to want.”
But this philosophy has failed to satisfy the third-party apps which have been relying heavily on Twitter’s API. The founder of TwitPic, for instance, says, “Twitter was built on the back of third-party developers. but now those developers are getting the shaft. I’m sure the pressure coming down from boardroom is pretty intense [to try to] control the eyeballs and control the message.”
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