Many things that make Twitter special were invented by the developers you mention: http://furbo.org/2011/03/11/twitterrific-firsts/ http://furbo.org/2011/03/11

Many things that make Twitter special were invented by the developers you mention: http://furbo.org/2011/03/11/twitterrific-firsts/ http://furbo.org/2011/03/11/twitterrific-firsts/ > First use of “tweet” to describe an update > First use of a bird icon. > First to support replies and conversations (in collaboration with Twitter engineering.) I think that's why this discussion thread is so negative, Twitter benefited immensely from the work of third party developers and then told them to go pound sand.