Twitter is Too Cool for School

Twitter is shutting down the development of any more 3rd party client apps. Has Twitter gone to the cool kids?

Maybe Twitter’s not really for free-form posting anymore though. Maybe what Twitter leadership really wants is to create a Hollywood-glossy, TV-comfy place for “mainstream users” to read Tweets from famous people and big media brands. Maybe they’re too cool for school and don’t need the earnest nerds that built their ecosystem in the early days anymore. Now they’ve got Charlie Sheen. If you want to build an app that helps big brands figure out how to give Charlie Sheen money to post a photo holding up your product - more power to you. If you thought Twitter was a place for outlaws, for free thinkers, for innovators - you need to tuck in your shirt, cut your hair and get a clue. Stop even risking confusion on the part of mainstream users. If that’s not the message, Twitter sure didn’t make much effort to avoid sounding that way.

It’s like when the X-Games made skateboarding cool, all over again.