One of the biggest reasons why Twitter has gained some much momentum over the past year is the thriving ecosystem of Twitter-related applications. Anything you could possibly imagine doing with Twitter is being created by the development community.
So, it seems downright strange and puzzling why Twitter has decided to impose limits to calls on its API – a move that SocialToo contends “is going go hurt every app out there”.
Rather than being flexible by offering developers more API capacity for a price (which would give Twitter a way to start making money), Twitter is digging in and suggesting 20,000 requests per hour is it.
I’m sure Twitter has its reasons – perhaps the need to defend its infrastructure – but Twitter’s increasing value and utility lies in how the platform is being extended.
That’s the exciting part, particularly given Twitter has shown little interest in pushing the platform itself by adding new features. A good example is Tweepler, which is a cool way to determine who you should be following.
Instead, Twitter rumbles along – a victim, in many ways, of its own success. Rather than push the community away, Twitter needs to engage because it’s going to play a major part in its success – much like the plug-in community has helped Wordpress thrive.
By capitalizing the word THOUSAND, Alex scares us into thinking 20,000 requests in a single hour seem like a lot. But I argue as apps grow this is going to hurt every app out there. I’m arguing that 20,000, or any request-rate limit for that matter, limits any app out there from being able to develop on the Twitter platform, and I don’t see why any able-minded entrepreneur would want to build on it if there’s such a rate limit in place. Here’s why:
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Is Twitter Shooting Itself in the Foot
One of the biggest reasons why Twitter has gained some much momentum over the past year is the thriving ecosystem of Twitter-related applications. Anything you could possibly imagine doing with Twitter is being created by the development community.
So, it seems downright strange and puzzling why Twitter has decided to impose limits to calls on its API – a move that SocialToo contends “is going go hurt every app out there”.
Rather than being flexible by offering developers more API capacity for a price (which would give Twitter a way to start making money), Twitter is digging in and suggesting 20,000 requests per hour is it.
I’m sure Twitter has its reasons – perhaps the need to defend its infrastructure – but Twitter’s increasing value and utility lies in how the platform is being extended.
That’s the exciting part, particularly given Twitter has shown little interest in pushing the platform itself by adding new features. A good example is Tweepler, which is a cool way to determine who you should be following.
Instead, Twitter rumbles along – a victim, in many ways, of its own success. Rather than push the community away, Twitter needs to engage because it’s going to play a major part in its success – much like the plug-in community has helped Wordpress thrive.
By capitalizing the word THOUSAND, Alex scares us into thinking 20,000 requests in a single hour seem like a lot. But I argue as apps grow this is going to hurt every app out there. I’m arguing that 20,000, or any request-rate limit for that matter, limits any app out there from being able to develop on the Twitter platform, and I don’t see why any able-minded entrepreneur would want to build on it if there’s such a rate limit in place. Here’s why: