Twitter’s Official Analytics Product Has Arrived | Hacker News Reader

Twitter’s Official Analytics Product Has Arrived

mashable.com

50 pointsbjonathan14 comments

And the muffled gasp of ten thousand analytics startups dying is heard across the valley.

This could be considered bad timing for Crowdbooster. Or maybe not.

Does this deter others from building businesses that are dependent on a third party app/API? Or does competition provide validation that the idea has merit?

If I was pg my first question to the Crowdbooster guys would have been "What happens if twitter builds this?". And if I was the Crowdbooster guys my answer would have been "Could twitter do this?" and shown plans to integrate with a gambit of other platforms creating a central SNS hub with Twitter as just the beginning.

When building on a platform you should always have plans for what happens if the platform (or someone else for that matter) creates a offering similar to your own.

So who does this directly compete with?

I can think of:

http://backtype.com

and of course

http://bit.ly

Any word from the above companies regarding this announcement?

The packaged response is usually "we work with more platforms" but when Twitter represents 90% of the status update ecosphere, does that response really cut it anymore?

http://crowdbooster.com/ which just launched... today.

I released http://twitya.com in March 2009 and quickly (and slowly) saw features from it become Twitter's interface. Twitya had a client interface operating for a while until basic Auth ceased. Even today it has a bunch of stats sites linked from it - those links will be less attractive to click now.

From this point-of-view, Twitter is like a system of organized theft with plausible deniability. Nuturing the eco-system - but only so they can harvest it. Like farmers preparing their fields, where you plant your seed, and then they eat/sell the best ones when mature. The older/higher devouring the younger/lower.

I understand it all about the MVP(minimal viable product), but honestly what does their product offer that 100's of other companies don't? I mean, based on what I saw, the functionality is going to very basic, basic stats, nothing special, no sentiment analysis, nothing. I don't mean to bash them, I was just expecting something more elegant.

Let's hope this isn't Twitter's only monetisation strategy.

Doubtful, they're certainly not finished with advertising for a start. Then there are plenty more premium features they can provide to businesses looking get the most out of twitter.

Any one of the startups build around twitter is fair game, and they're certainly not going to think twice about eating some startup's lunch.

…until they look too hungry and startups become scared to build on top of a platform controlled by Twitter. Look at all the Twitter clients that vanished when they bought Tweetie and released it for free.

But that is the point really. Does Twitter need them anymore? Just like Facebook did, slowly cutting down the avenues that developers can access users will increase Twitter's revenue. Developers want an audience so they will jump through Twitter's hoops, just like they do for Apple.

From Twitter's the point of view they're looking to monetize their massive user base, not sustain a startup ecosystem. They won't become overtly hostile to developers or anything but if there is a choice between profit and developers the developers will lose every time.

Anyone who thought this was ever going to be another way once Twitter was established is a bit naive I'm afraid.

That’s a good question, “Does Twitter need developers anymore?”.

I don’t have an answer to this, but alienating your developers, who are among your most fervent users, is risky. Besides games, what’s left for developers anyways, since Twitter reigns over url shortening, mobile Twitter clients, stats, geolocation, recommendations, advertising …

edit: added advertising (through T&C) to the list

I wonder if Avi Bryant had anything to do with this?

Glad to hear this capability is finally going to be available from Twitter. In order to successfully run your Social Media Campaign, you've got to know what is and is not working.

When can we try it?

Brett Miller http://www.customsoftwarebypreston.com/technologies

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