Big changes are rolling through the world of social networking. First LinkedIn decides that it doesn’t want Twitter auto-posting to LinkedIn accounts, and then Twitter decides to cut Instagram’s Friend Finder service. Now Twitter is at it again. Twitter has gone and broken up one of the most used apps out there. Tumblr and Twitter have been hand in hand for quite some time with tons of people relying on Tumblr’s Find Twitter Friends service. Not only is this upsetting for Tumblr and Twitter users it is troubling for Tumblr as well.
Tumblr released an official response stating:
The official Tumblr statement reads, “To our dismay, Twitter has restricted our users’ ability to “Find Twitter Friends” on Tumblr. Given our history of embracing their platform, this is especially upsetting. Our syndication feature is responsible for hundreds of millions of tweets, and we eagerly enabled Twitter Cards across 70 million blogs and 30 billion posts as one of Twitter’s first partners. While we’re delighted by the response to our integrations with Facebook and Gmail, we are truly disappointed by Twitter’s decision.”
Given the fact that so many people rely on Tumblr for generating tweets and more it leaves one wondering exactly what has motivated this move on Twitter’s part. Some could possibly argue that it has to do with potential changes to privacy regulations, but this would be a hard argument to win considering that there is nothing in place requiring the move. Another thought is that this move could be part of a general distancing campaign meant to give Twitter more autonomy as a platform.
That being said, what will we be seeing come across the wire from Twitter? Will the social mini blog site increase the character limit to encourage longer tweets? Will they consider starting a Twitter branded full blog site with functionality similar to Tumblr and Instagram? Considering the changes we have been seeing it would not be surprising to hear any such announcements. It certainly bears keeping an eye on things.
One way to tell that bigger things are in the works will be if Twitter severs ties with Facebook as well. Once this happens you can bet anything that either Twitter has something outstanding in the works or that the Fail Whale is once again showing its ugly mug. Either way, people both inside and outside of Twitter are questioning the current moves. It won’t take much to sour a world of relationships between the company and those who have embraced it.