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Track is Back! Steve Gillmor Rejoices

Posted on June 21, 2009 by jessestay

One of the major reasons I joined Twitter over a year ago was the ability to easily subscribe to Tweets, based on search terms I sent over my cell phone or IM client. Due to scaling issues and load on Twitter as they grew, Twitter removed that ability shortly after Scoble and I visited them last year. Twitter called it “Track”.

It was simple functionality. I send “track keyword” to 40404 on my mobile phone, and immediately any Tweet with that keyword would be sent straight to my mobile phone (or IM client if I had it set correctly in my preferences). It was very useful. For instance, if I wanted to know every happening at the time going on at Sundance here in Utah, I would simply “track sundance” and all those Tweets would be delivered to me, as they happened. I could do the same with my name, my brand, or my favorite technologies.

Twitter may have removed that functionality last year, but just over a week ago, they finally released API methods to make the real-time searching of keywords and search terms available again via their limited streaming APIs available in Alpha right now. The API method is conveniently called “track”. On June 12, John Kalucki, developer behind the real-time streaming APIs Twitter is now providing developers described it on the Twitter developers mailing list as such:

“The /track resource allows searching the Firehose stream for a list of keywords. This resource may be a useful adjunct to the Twitter Search API. While the predicates are less powerful than the SearchAPI, results are streamed continuously and with low-latency. For common keywords, a more complete set of results can be delivered than is possible by polling the Search API. Consult the Streaming API documentation for limits and details: http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Streaming-API-Documentation.”

Put in simple terms, developers now have access to take a list of keywords for a specific Twitter user, and have Twitter deliver any Tweet that meets those search terms in real-time back to the developer’s app. That means Push notifications via iPhone applications on the new iPhone 3.0 firmware are now possible, any company utilizing SMS can easily deliver terms via SMS again, and more.

Because the Streaming APIs are in limited Alpha, only certain developers will be allowed access, but I fully expect to see this integrated in the near future. I expect to see this especially as the code solidifies and moves out of Alpha, into apps such as TweetDeck, Tweetie, and Seesmic Desktop. Twitter users everywhere can rejoice, as their most requested and most favorite feature taken from Twitter has just been found.

Twitter Tracker logo courtesy NBC Tonight Show.

iPhone Dev Team Sets iPhone 3.0 Free

Posted on June 20, 2009 by jessestay

Jealous that all your 3G S friends have video AND cut and paste on their iPhones? Envy no more. Just earlier today as those of us were out braving the Apple Store lines to get our new iPhones, the iPhone Dev Team released a new version of their iPhone Jailbreaking tool, Pwnage Tool that works with all iPhone versions except the 3G S. The tool works with the 3.0 software, and will enable your 3G and younger phones (even first generations) to run tools such as Qik, and give free tethering just by installing it.

Previously, limits to the iPhone Baseband prevented any versions of the iPhone above 1.2.1 from being Jailbroken. This prevented many important bugs from being updated, and most importantly, as of Wednesday kept users from accessing the copy and paste, voice memos, search functionality, and more that the 3.0 software update provided. Now, all traditional 3G and younger phones can have full access to that functionality.

The iPhone Dev Team is still working on finalizing updates to their replacement for “yellowsn0w”, which allowed the iPhone 1.2.1 software and younger to also be unlocked for all GSM carriers to use. The replacement is called “ultrasn0w”, and is supposed to unlock all released iPhone versions, including those after 1.2.1 which yellowsn0w would not work with. Put in laymans terms, when ultrasn0w is released, you will be able to use any iPhone, on any version of the iPhone software, on any supporting GSM carrier. The iPhone Dev team is supposed to be just around the corner from releasing the unlock tool which enables ultrasn0w for use on other Cell Phone networks. They have suggested you wait to Jailbreak your iPhone if you intend to unlock it as well under the 3.0 update.

The 3G S may still be far off from an unlock or Jailbreak. It is my understanding that Apple has introduced a chipset that makes this “impossible”, or very difficult at a minimum. So if you want streaming video and much more customization without the speed, along with the ability to switch contracts to any provider at any time, you may want to hold onto that old iPhone for a little longer.

Twitter Declares Checkmate on Twitter Gamers

Posted on June 19, 2009 by jessestay

Just recently Twitter began the much-needed stance to suspend users practicing the controversial “Twitter Game” (as I call it). On the Twitter developers mailing list, Twitter developer Doug Williams told me yesterday that users who “use software to constantly churn followers in a repeated pattern of following and unfollowing will … risk suspension.” This new rule was confirmed to me by several other Twitter users that Twitter customer support is also confirming that this is happening.

The “Twitter Game” was the topic of a podcast I participated in a few months back with Lucretia Pruitt and Jim Turner hosting. The practice centers around following as many people as you can (up to the 1,000 users per day limit that Twitter has imposed), continuing such practice until the ratio of following 10-20% more than those following you is reached. Then users would unfollow the users that don’t follow them back. This practice increases the number of followers of any particular user, theoretically providing a much larger reach for the user or brand doing such. Other similar techniques involve using tools such as Twollo and Hummingbird to find new people to follow that might follow back, and share links under multiple accounts with those individuals.

With Twitter taking a stance against this practice, this means no longer will users be able to quickly inflate their numbers and get around the ratios Twitter has put in place to keep this “gaming” from happening. From users I have talked to, some over major brands, some are not happy. The threat of suspension will come welcome to those getting tired of meaningless followers however. While not a welcome sight to some, it is simply a change in “Game”. Users will need to adapt and use more effective methods of gaining new followers, such as maybe, providing good content? Regardless, I expect people to continue to find new ways to game the system. We’ll see if Twitter can win this “Rat Race”.

The Facebook Vanity Gold Rush Preempted by Facebook Employees?

Posted on June 12, 2009 by jessestay

We’re just hours away from the launch of Facebook vanity URLs. Many have complained at the preferential treatment given to some influentials and bloggers to get the names they want. After asking, I was offered my first and last name, but Facebook refused to give me and other bloggers the names we would have preferred. I turned them down – I’m pretty sure my full name will be available (and if not there are legal ramifications if the person does not have my name). In my case I was hoping for “Jesse” since I’m currently using that on Twitter. After all, Loic got his first name.

It would appear there may be reason for that. I’m noticing in just the past few hours Facebook employees seem to be coming out from the woodwork and snagging up the remaining first names available as fast as they can. It would appear others are noticing, too. For instance, “Jesse”, just in the past 2 hours or so is now occupied by Facebook employee, Jesse Dwyer. What’s odd is that in the last few hours there was even an account called “God” on Facebook. While it seemed to break the 5 character rule, it would appear Facebook has corrected and removed the account. I wish I had a screenshot (although I do have witness of at least one other Twitter user that saw it).

With Facebook employees being given preferential treatment, will there even be reason to try and get the names we want? It would appear that, to get the “official” names we want we have to work for Facebook. In the meantime I’ll be using my SocialToo Vanity URL – at least I get analytics from that. (really, check it out – we just launched it today!)

I’ll be on live tonight to cover it at http://ustream.tv/channel/thesocialgeek. We’ll see if we can get others to join in with us.

Curing Spam on Twitter With Better Follow Limits

Posted on June 10, 2009 by jessestay

I posted this over on the Twitter developer mailing list to try and get a discussion going. I thought I’d post a copy here for my readers to discuss – maybe you have more ideas than I do. I want to make it clear that I do not condone what some users of SocialToo are doing to gain Twitter followers. Will I stop them? I can’t – as long as Twitter allows them to do it, I can’t make a decision one way or another on who is doing this and who is not. No matter what, I have to respect my users, and most (almost all) of them are using Twitter for legitimate reasons. I do think changing the limits to what I suggested in the e-mail (below) will fix the problem Twitter is trying to solve though:

Let’s discuss the follow limits. I feel, as developer of a tool that allows people to auto-follow, I have a bit of insight into this. While there are many, many legitimate users that auto-follow others, and have good reason to do so, some are using it as a way to game the system, build followers quickly, break the Twitter TOS, and reduce the meaning of follower numbers for many other users just using the service legitimately. I see this daily, amongst a few of my own users, and while, due to our privacy policy I can’t share who they are, I do have some suggestions that would make the API follow limits make a little more sense. Maybe you guys can provide more insight.

-Currently the follow per day limit is 1,000 follows per user per day. There is no limit on the number of unfollows a user can do per day (that I know of), and it appears as though there is also a limit of around 10% for the number of users a person can follow more than follow them back. The users taking advantage of Twitter have figured this out. So here’s what they do:

A “gamer”‘s typical activity is that they will follow as many people as they can – most up to the 1,000 limit they’re allowed per day, until they hit the ratio of 10%. The higher the follower base they gain, the longer they’re able to do this. They then hope a good portion of those 1,000 people follow back. Those that don’t use tools like mine (which weren’t intended to be used this way) to unfollow everyone who is not following them back. This is often much greater than 1,000 for the users that are really good at it. The process then starts over. They’ll use tools like Hummingbird (Google it) and Twollo to find people and automatically go out and follow them. This is why I refuse to create auto-follow filters to find new people on my service. It’s way too spammy if you ask me.

Why do they do this? 2 reasons: 1, “supposedly” having more followers means more visits and clicks in whatever you’re trying to promote. (I don’t believe this) and 2, many of these people also have auto-DM set up to send links and messages to each person that follows them back. Back when I offered this service (we disabled it for this exact reason) people told me they were seeing significant clicks on the links they would send to people via DM after they followed them. Therefore, more follows==more clicks==more revenue. I don’t blame them if that’s what they’re really seeing.

So for this reason I think having limits in place is a *good* thing. I don’t think the follow limit is in place due to traffic reasons, since there are many more calls that cause more traffic on the API and there is no limit to unfollows, so I really think Twitter is doing this for the purpose of reducing spam and “gaming” of Twitter. This is a good thing.

However, I think Twitter may be approaching the limits the wrong way. Here’s what I think would be more effective, and beneficial for the legitimate users that want to follow back and at the same time not allow those who want to game the system to use the methods I described. Twitter needs to impose limits based on whether the individual is following the user back or not.

For instance, if I follow @dacort and he is following me back, that shouldn’t count against me as a hit against my follow limit. However, if I try to follow @dacort and he is not following me back, it should count against me as a hit against my limit. With this, users could easily auto-follow back if they choose to, and it would still be difficult for the users trying to game the system and spam Twitter. In fact, you could significantly *reduce* the limit this way and make it virtually impossible for these users to use Twitter in that manner. If you were to look at the relationship between the users when counting against limits, you could probably reduce the follow/day limit all the way to around 200 per day instead of 1,000 per day. I don’t see any reason for the 10% follow/follower ratio with a low limit such as that.

However, as stands, the more followers you get, if you are using Twitter legitimately, you have no way to extend the courtesy back if you choose to do so, since after a certain point you will be following many more than 1,000 users per day. And even if you aren’t, it will take an extremely long time for many individuals to finally catch up to follow those following them if they want to at 1,000 follows per day.

I know there are some that disagree with the auto-follow concept. However, I also know most of you also want Twitter to be an open environment where people can choose to use it as they please. Doug, Alex, etc. I’d love it if you guys could at least consider changing the follow limits as I mentioned. The current limits are doing nothing to prevent the spammers – my suggestions I believe will, and will keep it an open environment for the rest of us.

Sorry for the long discourse – I would really love to hear others thoughts and suggestions.

@Jesse

Feel free to chime in on the developers mailing list, or let’s discuss here – what suggestions do you have? Are there any holes in my proposal?

I’m Starting a Podcast – Come Join Me Tomorrow!

Posted on June 8, 2009 by jessestay

I’ve finally decided to bite the bullet and go forward with a dream I’ve had for awhile. Monday (today), June 8, 2009 at 8:30PM MST I’ll be recording my first, yet-to-be-named podcast under the Stay N’ Alive Productions umbrella. We’ll broadcast the recording live on Ustream on my SocialGeek channel at http://ustream.tv/channel/thesocialgeek. You can chat during the broadcast in the StayNAlive room on FriendFeed (you are subscribed, right?), or via IRC or Twitter right on the Ustream site. I’ve set up a thread just for this show on FriendFeed, and you can begin chat below (and witness the power of FriendFeed at the same time).

I am still working out the exact focus of the show, but the general direction will be learning about and discussing new and early-adopter technologies in the tech space. Much of what you read from me here and on LouisGray.com will be similar to what you can expect to hear in the PodCast. The difference will be you get to see live examples, hear from experts other than myself, gather some great discussion, and witness the real-time web in action! This will be a true real-time web experience, and should be fun to participate.

The guests for our first show are two good friends of mine, and very smart Geeks, the esteemed Louis Gray, author and Editor of LouisGray.com, a blog for early adopters and very well known, especially in Silicon Valley. Louis advises for my company, SocialToo, amongst several other up-and-coming web ventures. He’s one of the smartest web technologists I know. I’ve also extended him an open invitation to join us on any future show he would like to be a part of, so we’ll see if we get to see more of him.

Joining Louis, local Salt Lake City Anchor and Tech Reporter of Fox’s KSTU Channel 13 here, Kirk Yunke, will be bringing his enthusiasm for new gadgets and technology to the show. Kirk is leaps and bounds ahead of many other News reporters I’ve come in contact with, and just the other day spent the night as the first in line to get a Palm Pre. He’s going to share with us his opinion of the Pre, maybe show off a little, and hopefully we can get a little insight into the pros and cons of the device.

Tomorrow is the Apple WWDC Keynote, so we’ll spend the second half of the show discussing that and the things announced there, along with any other interesting things that have come up over the last week. This should be a fun episode, and I’m very excited to get this started in what I hope to be many more fun Episodes of the future. I intend to make this a weekly Podcast, so stay tuned to the Stay N’ Alive FriendFeed room for more details on future episodes.

UPDATE: Be sure to take the SocialToo SocialSurvey to vote on a name for the podcast!

http://friendfeed.com/staynalive/b6db8a34/first-inaugural-yet-to-be-named-stay-n-alive?embed=1

Learn More About Facebook With Upcoming WebCasts

Posted on June 8, 2009 by jessestay

I’ve been invited to do 2 WebCasts in the next 2 weeks that I think you might be interested in. As always I’ll try to post my slides on SlideShare if it makes sense to do so. I really like an interactive presentation so most of the time my slides don’t make sense.

The first is for the Marketers in the Audience. It’s about gaining Business value from Facebook, and I’ll discuss how to give your business legs using the Social Network. I’ll cover how to create an effective Facebook Page for your business, when and how to use your personal Facebook Profile for networking, do’s and don’ts on the network, advertising, the tools you need, and more. That Webinar is hosted by Marketing Coalition, and is $149 per individual, and $129 per individuals in groups of at least 3. You can register here. The Webinar takes place on Thursday at 1:30PM EST.

The second WebCast is free, and hosted by Safari Books Online. It will target developers new to Facebook development, and in it I’ll cover the basics of what you need to get started in Facebook Development. We did this last year and I think everyone really enjoyed it that attended. The first people that register get a free Autographed copy of my book, FBML Essentials, and everyone else gets a free 45-day account on Safari Books Online to read FBML Essentials. Did I mention how much I love O’Reilly? You can register here. My slides from the last one of these I did are up on SlideShare.

There will be a Q&A after each session, so come with your questions and I’ll do my best to answer!

Twitter a Ubiquitous Utility? Open Up a Little!

Posted on June 7, 2009 by jessestay

I’m completely stumped by the recent media blitz by Twitter co-founders, Ev Williams, Biz Stone, and Jack Dorsey. They seem to be traveling the nation like rock stars, willing to say anything and everything about whatever the media wants to hear, as their service sits broken on the sidelines and the world wonders where their much needed Twitter has gone, or why their favorite app is down. Hey, it’s not my company though, so I’m sure they have their reasons, and good for them for enjoying and celebrating their success.

But then we see statements like that of Jack Dorsey, a reputable coder like myself, and someone I highly respect, stating, “I think Twitter’s a success for us when people stop talking about it, when we stop doing these panels and people just use it as a utility, use it like electricity…It fades into the background, something that’s just a part of communication. We put it on the same level as any communication device. So, e-mail, SMS, phone. That’s where we want to be.” Of course he’s saying this while his co-founders are touring the nation, visiting Oprah and Ashton and every major News outlet on the planet trying to get people to talk about Twitter. The thing is, I don’t care how useful Twitter is or has become (Despite the negatives that I’ve written about Twitter, I’ve written just as many positives), Twitter will never become a “Utility” until they open up a little, and I don’t just mean from a PR perspective (actually, I don’t mean that at all). I mean from an architecture perspective.

My friend (and fellow LouisGray.com co-writer), Rob Diana, thinks that Twitter is on its way to becoming infrastructure. I’m not arguing that’s not possible. In fact, I really think Twitter has the masses to make that happen. However, to make it the caliber of a “Utility”, or like “Electricity”, to me seems far-fetched when in the end, there is always a Twitter brand wrapped around it and no way for the public to have any control of that data. Until they remove those chains, Twitter is and always will be just another communications Service, not a Utility. Twitter will never blend into the background until they open up some.

Let’s look at some example utilities:

Electricity

We’ll start with the most obvious. Electricity is a natural force. It can only be created by utilizing existing energy. Various “Utilities” have found ways to harness this energy to create this electricity and deliver it to your home. However no single company owns that electricity, and each company is using the existing, open, laws of physics to harness and deliver such electricity to your home. No single company controls how electricity gets created or delivered. In fact, depending on your own local laws, you could even create your own electricity, and live independent from any single “Utility” company that also provides such service.

Water

Water is very similar. Each company provides a “service” or “utility” around cleaning the water supplies and routing them to your home. However, there’s nothing stopping any individual (other than government) from collecting their own water, and purifying it themselves for consumption. It’s bound only by the laws of Physics, and lives on a completely open model.

Phone

Perhaps even closer to Twitter’s turf than Electricity, the Phone is an open communications process. A “utility” company delivers the lines to get a signal from the sender’s phone, to a routing operator, and over to the recipient. However the underlying technology sending a phone’s signal from sender to recipient and back is not proprietary to any one single company. It’s simple Electricity (there’s that word again) and open protocols, and based on completely open (the most open) standards, bound simply by the laws of Physics.

So how in the world can a company like Twitter become like “Electricity”, flowing as the infrastructure of communication with little to no knowledge of those using the service? It comes down to the laws of Physics. Twitter needs to stop making the rules. They need to open up 100%, open up their code-base, release a protocol, and start letting people run their own Federated Twitter servers that can be run in any environment, speak the same protocol, and in essence, be invisible to those using the service. Twitter’s current model will never take them there.

Google’s leading the way here with Wave. The funny thing is Google employees aren’t going around bragging that their service will become like “Electricity” (okay, well maybe their name kind of implies that). What will happen is that you’ll be familiar with the Wave Product, which will become like Gmail and many, many users will use it since Google was first-to-market. However, what most users will not be aware of is that the way they communicate elsewhere will also be powered by Google Wave technology. Google Wave is also a Protocol, and built on an Open-Source Architecture. You’ll be able to run your own Wave servers, or even write your own services that speak the Wave protocol. Your users will never even know their communication went through a Google product.

I’m afraid Twitter has some serious competition as long as they want to become a Utility and Google Wave is in open development. Because they’ve waited to enter the Open arena, Google may just beat them to the punch on the “Utility” game. Jack Dorsey’s a smart guy. Twitter’s a great and powerful platform. However, I’m afraid they’re focusing too much on the platform and the product and not enough on what should really be the “Electricity” of their system – the communication.

Twitter, it’s time to open up guys. I’m itching to use some of that “Electricity” of yours.

Twitter Needs to Buy TweetDeck

Posted on June 2, 2009 by jessestay

WSJ today reported that China has blocked Twitter.com, preventing its 1.3 billion citizens from potentially accessing the site. Iain Dodsworth, developer of TweetDeck, was quick to point out however (which I noticed on FriendFeed ironically) that his service is still reportedly accessible in the Mainland. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – Twitter, you need your own desktop client!

With everyone up in arms over how Twitter will monetize and when it will happen, there has been one obvious missing link from the start. Twitter has never had control over how Tweets get to the users. They themselves have admitted the API gets used much more than their own Twitter.com site gets used, showing, to me, that there is a way, currently, Twitter could be monetizing. Twitter has made it clear they do not intend to advertise through Tweets, which would almost certainly be rejected by their current user-base, already annoyed by the abundance of spam on the site. What Twitter could do however, that is assuming they have control over the main methods users receive Tweets, aka their desktop clients, is insert ads into such a desktop client and their own website, unobtrusive to users. Users will probably not even care at such ad placement, considering Google gets away with it, Yahoo and Microsoft do within their own search products.

Other Monetization Strategies

According to a recent TechCrunch article, Iain Dodsworth himself is already looking to monetize via this method. His method doesn’t even involve advertising, and maybe, in a world where advertising is beginning to prove ineffective, his method has even more potentially lucrative than the one I mention. His method is, according to TechCrunch, to charge developers looking for integration into TweetDeck for integration into the product. I think this is a great idea, and something that, with the popularity of TweetDeck, will prove quite profitable for him in the end.

Twitter could be doing this as well and perhaps even more effectively with the strong developer platform they have built. Add to that ability to integrate directories of applications into such an application enable featured app listings, along with perhaps an advertisement here or there Twitter could very quickly become profitable just by having control of such an application.

Why TweetDeck is a Good Choice

This isn’t meant to begrudge any of the other apps I enjoy and use. The fact is that TweetDeck is the most popular and most used Desktop app for Twitter right now (even though we can’t prove that at the moment thanks to Twitter API issues). It has the most users and most adoption – it would be the quickest barrier to entry, and clearly has features their users like, as they seem to continue using the app.

Considering deals are already being made to monetize the application, and considering, based on the recent investment of $500,000 into the company, comparatively speaking to the amount of money Twitter claims to have, TweetDeck shouldn’t be that expensive for Twitter to buy at the moment. Now’s the time Twitter. I wouldn’t wait much longer, as TweetDeck is about to become a whole lot more valuable.

More Distribution Options

Considering the recent issues in China, were Twitter to own the distribution channel, let’s imagine it’s TweetDeck, they would still have control of what goes out to China, and how to monetize off of those users. Currently, TweetDeck, and any client for that matter, have no devotion to Twitter – it’s just the first service they’re servicing in a long line of other services they’re also adding to their clients. Twitter should own this opportunity, and where they are claiming to be the next “AP”, if they’ve learned anything from the News organizations (I’ve worked in this industry), they need to control the distribution and not just the content.

I think Twitter is giving up an important opportunity by not having control of the desktop. I could probably say the same for the mobile phone (especially the iPhone). Perhaps their fear is that it would introduce unfair competition for the other desktop clients out there, but I don’t see any reason the other clients can’t compete as well, if not more than Twitter would provide anyway. This simply provides an important distribution platform where they would be provided many more monetization opportunities. I think it’s win-win.

Now, to get the guys at Twitter to start reading my blog…

Where is Twitter’s Emergency Response System?

Posted on May 31, 2009 by jessestay

The buzz has been swirling around the Twitter developer-sphere about a bug that has been going on for almost a full day now. Louis Gray reported it first at around 12am MST last night, and the first post to the Twitter development mailing list went up at around 2am MST last night. But Twitter is no where to be found, and it’s really starting to hurt some developers. So much that the very popular TweetStats, by Damon Cortesi has completely had to shut down until the service is re-enabled.

The bug is surrounding the display of the source app via both the API and in the Web UI showing which application a Tweet has come from on Twitter. Currently, according to TweetStats, 100% of the messages on Twitter are displaying they are coming from the Web. Developers and bloggers are complaining but no one is being heard.

In fact, according to Twitter, both Evan Williams (founder of Twitter), and Alex Payne (Twitter’s API Lead) are both in Maui on unrelated trips (Alex’s is for vacation – it’s unclear why Ev is there), posting pictures of the frozen drinks they are having and talking about the massages they are getting. Alex even stated he doesn’t have his laptop with him. Of course I don’t expect him to be reading this, and I congratulate him for being able to have some very deserved time-off–but what do we do when the API goes down?

Twitter developers have asked repeatedly for a paid API service which they can be guaranteed more up-time and more API access, along with a higher tier of support. Even Iain Dodsworth, the developer behind TweetDeck has mentioned in conversations on FriendFeed that, with unlimited API access, they would be able to deliver some of their “dream functionality”, and would “pay a lot” for such. As the developer behind SocialToo, I firmly agree with his statement – it would be a cost-savings for me. Regardless, there is still no good way to get Twitter support when their API goes down. Developers need some sort of Emergency Response System, and I think Twitter should charge for this level of service.

In times where developers’ apps go down many livelihoods are at stake. Money is not being made, and with a very poor support system by Twitter as is, and no way to guarantee support during such circumstances, developers are putting a lot on the line writing for such a service. Currently, the only means is via the Developer mailing list, and as we can see there is yet to be a response from Twitter via that means, and at least one entire application has been put out of business because of the issue.

Will there be a time we can see a prioritized service from Twitter that developers can pay for and guarantee service? I think with today’s example this option has just become a lot more important. The free service simply isn’t cutting it any more.

What do you think Twitter should do?