
Twitter cuts off “find friends” access to Tumblr - rsobers
http://www.marco.org/2012/08/22/twitter-cuts-off-tumblr-friend-finding
======
ChuckMcM
Not completely unexpected. Twitter needs cash, and they need a sustainable
business model. I would not be surprised if Tumblr and Twitter talked and
there was a value disagreement about who brought what to the party. Another
one of those things my grandfather would say that this reminds me of is this,
"The thing about a Mexican standoff is that sometimes they shoot."

I used to do Battlebots, Comedy Central had the television rights, at contract
renewal time Battlebots and CC disagreed over who brought the most value to
the table, they agreed to disagree and both walked away.

Clearly this will kill neither Twitter nor Tumblr but what it does do is put
an obvious to fill gap in Tumblr's toolchest. Presumably they could add
Identi.ca there where Twitter was, sure you wouldn't find any friends their
yet but if Tumblr can convince their users to get an Identi.ca id when they
create their Tumblr and then offer a chance to find people with it, it helps
more than it hurts.

~~~
jbigelow76

        >if Tumblr can convince their users to get an Identi.ca id when they create their Tumblr and then offer a chance to find people with it, it helps more than it hurts.
    

If Tumblr needs to push their users to get an account on a social network that
isn't Tumblr then they have SERIOUS problems. But the traffic numbers indicate
they don't need to do that, I don't see why they wouldn't just use good 'ole
email addresses as the discovery method instead of Twitter.

~~~
ChuckMcM
Well it was more the interest graph. I follow people on twitter for whom I
have no idea what their email address is. So finding all the people I follow
on Tumblr is a simple matter of getting my follow list and matching up with
registered Twitter handles.

And yes, Tumblr can do their own service the Tumblr version of Twitter, but
then users are 'meh' because really they want just one thing to follow/monitor
not a dozen (the Google+ problem in spades).

So what Tumblr _really_ wants is a replacement for Twitter that has the same
attributes, but creating that replacement is a made harder by the whole 'one
place to go problem.'

One possible strategy is to empower a 'neutral' third party. As more and more
people are alienated by Twitter, even competitors of Tumblr can see the
benefit of empowering this neutral third party and so by not 'owning' the
service they empower the service to be successful. I realize that is a bit zen
but its really the only way this works as far as I can tell.

------
rdl
I wonder if Twitter will become like MySpace -- a mass market/middle
school/music/urban ghetto, with everyone smart enough to move to another
service doing so (which was Facebook at the time).

If the tech/vc/science community moved to app.net, the only thing left for me
on twitter would be businesses abusing it as a form of RSS, which is by far
the easiest content for them to publish to both Twitter and App.net in
parallel. So really there are about 5k and maybe up to 50k people who need to
move to app.net for me to no longer care about Twitter, and presumably at
least 2500 of them have already signed up.

~~~
kylemaxwell
I wonder if you see the implicit racism in your first sentence.

Also: the issue for any network is that your 5k people will likely differ
significantly from my 5k (or whatever the right number is). Extend that over
an entire user population and now Metcalfe's Law takes hold, but in reverse.

~~~
mbesto
> _implicit racism_

Really? What race was implied? The OP attributed mass market/middle
school/urban ghetto with intelligence, which subsequently is correlative.

Not sure how _race_ was ever implied here...

~~~
sequoia
"Urban" is a euphemism for "black." See also "inner-city" & in reference to
young people often "at-risk." Not saying commenter intended to be racist but
that the term "urban" refers to black people (in the US, in this context) is
indisputable.

~~~
lloyddobbler
...um, no.

I live in the inner city. I'm white. My apartment is in an urban area, meaning
I'm surrounded more by buildings than well-manicured streets and houses. I
live in an urban environment. And we have people of all shapes, sizes and
colors here.

When I lived in L.A. (North Hollywood, specifically), it was the same thing -
urban (meaning, "of or pertaining to a city," look it up), but much more run-
down. Not a lot of black people. More hispanics and white people. Myself
included.

Communication depends on a common language to make it work. Just because
you've decided that a common word means something different than its etymology
- or its definition, even - doesn't make it so.

~~~
_pius
You're both incorrect and needlessly condescending, so I'll correct you with
your own uncivil tone.

I'm not sure if you're being willfully obtuse or you actually _have_ been
living under a rock all your life and thus never heard the ubiquitous use of
"urban" as code for "minority," but suffice it to say, the person you're
responding to probably did not single-handedly plant all of the references to
the phenomenon that exist in the world. Look it up:
<http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=urban>

The fact that you can neither grasp the concept of a connotation nor fathom
the idea of a word being used euphemistically does not make its real-world
usage go away.

------
graue
Direct link to source: [http://thenextweb.com/twitter/2012/08/22/tumblr-
becomes-next...](http://thenextweb.com/twitter/2012/08/22/tumblr-becomes-next-
property-instagram-twitter-friend-finding-privileges-revoked/)

I wonder if they tried to negotiate behind the scenes, to get Tumblr to pay
$$$ for that access, and couldn't come to an agreement. Or if this is part of
a negotiating strategy. Charging for third-party access seems logical given
that they referred to their follow graph's "great value" when they shut off
Instagram. Simply shutting off access at any price, on the other hand, doesn't
make sense.

~~~
lawdawg
Sounds about right, and similar to what happened between Google's real-time
search and Twitter. Guess no one should be surprised about this happening if
work with Twitter ...

------
mmahemoff
This is getting to be ridiculous (if the story is true). This use case of
finding friends wasn't part of the Forbidden Twitter Quadrant, the one
containing clients and apps like Favstar. In fact, they encouraged this kind
of use at their developer event I attended last year, and of course they
would, it strengthens the value of their network. I have been planning this
kind of integration myself, but it's beginning to feel like Twitter wants to
become a completely isolated silo.

I can only hope a mistake was made here as it sounds so absurd.

~~~
galenward
There is nothing absurd about this.

Twitter is a company that is in the business of making money. They are nominal
value for themselves when they let third parties import their entire graph and
providing incredible value for the importers.

This is a 100% rational business decision. If Twitter didn't offer friend
finding on 3rd party networks before, it would be a bad business decision if
they up and did it today.

No one will stop using Twitter because they can't use it to connect with their
friends on another service.

------
spinchange
These companies are competitors. There was a time when it was worth the
user/developer goodwill to let other networks build their graph off of
Twitter's. At this stage (and it's been this way for a while), Tumblr almost
feels like a migration path away from Twitter since it allows for longer
content. If users can replace platforms but not graphs, what is stopping them?
Twitter recognizes this and wants to stem that. It might not be what we expect
from a web or (former) API company, but I don't think it's personal. They're
just transitioning away from being an API company.

It seems like to get popular you have to be open and then to make money you
have to be closed.

------
bluetidepro
Wow, this is yet another (dumb) bold move by Twitter. I'm very curious to see
how this unfolds. I could see this triggering a lot of negative exposure to
Twitter in the coming days/weeks, if this is how they are going to start
silently cutting major developers off.

~~~
boyter
I don't think they care. Twitter has reached such mainstream exposure even if
every person in the tech world leaves them they have enough clout to remain
relevant because large news organisations use it as does the general
population.

What pisses me off is that twitter did have the opportunity to be an agent for
change such as in the Arab spring. Im sure they could have made up revenue by
charging for their API rather then cutting it off. Maybe not as much through
controlling the entire ecosystem but at least they would have had a higher
purpose then turning a huge profit (perhaps they could have just enough to
keep the lights on?).

App.net can never become this change agent as they will be too expensive for
most in developing countries to use.

~~~
mehdim
Twitter API thinks it is a too big to fail social API; and begins to think
short term profitability. Like the banking system with subprimes, they believe
the mass will always save them from fail. look one blogpost talking about it
here [http://api500.tumblr.com/post/27360838922/apis-too-big-to-
fa...](http://api500.tumblr.com/post/27360838922/apis-too-big-to-fail) with
other ones like GoogleMaps or Facebook.

------
opminion
Without consensus about (1) which metrics are important to Twitter, and (2)
how to maximise them, these comments about them being dicks are just emotional
responses.

Nothing wrong with that: getting burned by Twitter as a developer or user is
worth other people's attention, as we all try to understand what to make of
it.

~~~
rickmb
Emotional? I have absolutely nothing invested in this, and I can objectively
observe that Twitter are being dicks.

Also, the apologist's response "it makes business sense" doesn't offset the
fact that it is a dick move.

I find it odd and somewhat worrying that so many people seem adhere to the
logic "if there's a business reason for it, it's okay". The way Twitter treats
the ecosystem around Twitter is quite definitely not okay, no matter what the
rationale behind it is.

~~~
dasil003
Why don't they have the right to control how third parties use their APIs? It
costs money to maintain them after all, they can do what they want.

I'm not saying it's smart. The level of legitimate FUD they're creating around
their developer products is tantamount to sending Guido to kick down your
door, point a meaty sausage finger one inch from the bridge of your nose and
growl "Fuck You."

Personally I think they would have more to gain by being a better citizen of
the open web development community, but clearly they've decided that they
can't run the risk of anyone else finding a way to extract more value out of
their users than they can. Is that wrong because in the beginning we thought
they were fluffy?

------
nateabele
"You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the
villain."

~~~
sigkill
It happened to Microsoft. Then more recently to Apple. Now we're even
questioning Google's policies.

Who ever wrote that line is a genius.

~~~
nateabele
I have a hard time seeing Microsoft as the hero anywhere on the timeline, but
I take your point. ;-)

It's a very insightful quote, and I think it speaks to a truism of any long-
lived group of people (from companies on up to societies), or any entity with
significant political or economic power.

~~~
sigkill
I might be a bit cynical for my age, but I think government and laws and
corporations and patents and copyrights that were supposed to protect the
little guy from The Man have ended up turning the little guy into The New Man
who is now the villain.

~~~
nateabele
Accurate.

------
joshryandavis
Twitter is being a bit of a dick.

~~~
mehdim
Twitter is killing itself... <http://api500.tumblr.com/image/27419960753> Poor
Twitter...

------
mehdim
Twitter seems not respecting API neutrality (same paradigm as Internet
neutrality), the fact that all API 3rd-party users may have the same rights,
access and limits to your API, if they satisfy same primary conditions (free
or paying users)

Instagram, Linkedin, Tumblr...who's next?

They have gone crazy since they want to have their "consistent user
experience"...

~~~
drgath
re: "consistent user experience"

That's the thing, they just need to make the UX so badass that users will want
to use your products instead of a 3rd party. Problem solved. Instead, they are
just being lazy and squashing anyone who tries to innovate on their platform.
Considering every feature on Twitter.com started on 3rd party clients, they're
just shooting themselves in the foot.

But then again, that's assuming you believe it is about "consistent user
experience", which I think it likely 5% of the real answer.

~~~
mehdim
I don't believe so much to the consistent twitter experience alibi, because I
just never trust or believe in companies highly funded which have not still a
proven viable business model. To my mind , they are at the mercy of their
short term vision investors which oblige them to monetize everywhere in all
possible short term strategies.

~~~
drgath
> short term vision investors which oblige them to monetize everywhere in all
> possible short term strategies.

That's actually the public stock market. Private equity investors can vary
anywhere from extremely patient, to being as impatient as public share
holders. In Twitter's case, it's a 6-year old service that is peaking in
valuation ($10 billion) unless it can find some new source of revenue growth,
so I'd imagine the investors are getting a little ancy.

------
sambabu9
Twitter bought Posterous which is a direct competitor to tumblr, so this does
not surprise me.

~~~
loceng
They want to short-form into long-form. They're going for increasing their
piece of pie size. It makes sense, though I wonder if it'll hurt them in the
future.

------
dakrisht
They did the same thing with Instagram, I think Twitter are doing this because
these competing websites are generating a lot of new users for those websites
while leaving Twitter in the dark on growth, revenue, etc. Twitter sees this
as significant competition, although I don't really see how blocking these
"competitors" from using the Twitter API helps Twitter?

------
andrewhillman
I have said it before and I will say it again... for some reason, twitter is
taking themselves way too seriously with all of these recent developments.
Anyone who competes indirectly is clearly not wanted. What a shame.

------
nell
It is going to be painful when any free service starts wanting to make money.

~~~
kennywinker
<http://venturebeat.com/2011/09/29/twitter-financials/>

2010: $45 million 2011: $140 million 2012: ??

Sounds like they're doing ok to me.

~~~
stevencorona
Twitter has 1000 employees, at 100k a pop (with taxes, benefits, it's prob
higher) that's 100mm/year in salary expenses alone. Let's talk servers,
bandwidth, office space, and they dive into the red really fast.

~~~
rapind
Wait, why the frik do they have 1k employees?

~~~
slig
And yet they can't block obvious spam: new accounts posting @mentions with
spammy words and links.

------
mehdim
Following recent rumors that Apple would buy a chunk of Twitter, maybe Twitter
begins to close itself to fit with Apple vision of closed but mainstream and
consistent user experience.

~~~
porsupah
I'd be highly surprised if Apple took such a step - such an acquisition, or
major investment, wouldn't bring Apple any greater profit, in exchange for
billions. Given Apple's tendency to make any purchases as small as possible, I
suspect we've seen all of their involvement - some fee in exchange for the
unhindered embedding of Twitter posting within iOS and Mountain Lion.

To me, the most likely reason which explains the "consistent user experience"
quote is simply the matter of presenting ads, and being certain that every
single user is seeing them, unfiltered.

------
brunolazzaro
Way to go, Twitter. It's really a shame that they're doing these kind of
shitty things. Makes you wonder what are they planning to do...

------
angryasian
I imagine this is going to occur a lot more with twitter competing in
complementary spaces with both branch and medium.

------
lhartwich
This is all fine and all, but I wonder if the average user cares?

