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What is so special about the twitter API that it can't be duplicated and extended by another service?
by tvon 18y ago
What is so special about the twitter API that it can't be duplicated and extended by another service?
- buugs 18y agoThe amount of people creating products around it.
- tvon 18y agoThat's kind of at the core of my point. If you "embrace/extend" the Twitter API, you have this entire ecosystem of developers that only have to switch an API key/URL and their tools can work with your system, utilizing whatever new features you provide on top of the "vanilla" Twitter API. The larger the developer ecosystem gets, the more appealing it is to make the switch as easy as possible for them.
- drawkbox 18y agoNothing. It is so simple it can be copied or recreated in an a few hours. The hard part is getting people to use it and build on it and rely on it as a business. That takes years to unseat. The next twitter will have to beat it on many fronts. I believe most of twitter success was culture to allow the innovation and try (created from work at another startup odeo), timing and someone leading it that had already been through a sale to Google of blogger.com. The odds that that happens everyday isn't high. It was also the time when RESTful APIs were taking hold which Ruby on Rails had embraced, timing was huge.