Twitter to Get More Useful in Time for Monetization?

Twitter engineer Alex Payne tweeted over the weekend, "If you had some of the nifty site features that we Twitter employees have, you might not want to use a desktop client. (You will soon.)" Some took that to mean that Twitter was working on some new features for its own site, that would essentially render some popular third-party clients all but obsolete. The question is whether this is a legitimate concern for developers, or it has just been blown out of proportion. It could possibly be a combination of the two.

Technology blog TechCrunch took the tweet and ran with it, speculating that Twitter "appears to be on the verge of some big changes," and noting that the company recently hired a new "UI guru" (that's User Interface) from LinkedIn. Following this story, Payne quickly reacted through his Twitter account, downplaying the threat to third-party developers, saying things like, "I just mean that our web client team is building cool stuff. It’s going to inspire desktop app developers. Same data, new perspectives," and "It's all stuff that's available in the API, just a different view of it." He also retweeted more than one tweet mocking TechCrunch's reaction, such as this one from another Twitter employee:

Still, TechCrunch's MG Siegler may not be completely off base. Just because Twitter isn't taking anything away from developers, doesn't necessarily mean that users of certain third-party apps won't just as soon use Twitter.com instead, when the features they enjoy start being integrated there. If nothing else, such features could keep new users from worrying about looking for apps that do these things, because their needs will already be filled.

That's not to say Twitter would be wrong for doing so. User retention has been a problem for the company in the past, and anything that makes Twitter more usable has to be good for usage. Twitter is expected to announce its new ad platform/monetization model this month (finally), and while nobody knows exactly how that's going to shake out yet, it's likely in Twitter's best interest to have users going through Twitter itself.

Twitter has not been shy in the past about taking ideas that were born from the community, and integrating them into Twitter.com (the retweet feature comes to mind). The much larger Facebook has certainly been happy to borrow ideas from Twitter, so if Twitter wants to secure a stable future in this social networking/microblogging space, it is going to help if it looks at the ways users use the service through third-party apps, and utilizes some of these functionalities on its own.

As far as the developers are concerned, the more ideas Twitter takes for itself, the more innovating developers are going to have to do to keep their own apps relevant, and that can only be good for the Twitter community at large.

On a sidenote, Payne's original tweet on the matter appears to have been deleted (the URL linked to by Siegler, now goes to a "sorry that page doesn't exist!" page).  Update: Twitter does apparently have some missing tweet issues going on, so perhaps that is related.

Old Version of AdWords API Nears Expiration Date

Update: Google is reminding users of the AdWords API that on April 22, most of the services related to v13 will be turned off.

Google is telling users to switch to v200909 as soon as possible to avoid any complications.

Original Article: Google has launched the newest version of the AdWords API v2009 beta. That would be version 200909. Google cites the following as the highlights of the new API:

- Asynchronous calls - Asynchronous calls allow you to work with large sets of data faster and more easily. Instead of having to wait for our system to fully complete your request before you can make another one, you’re now able to make another call as soon as the API service confirms that it has received your previous call. No more waiting for the server to complete large requests. V200909 will continue to support Synchronous methods as well.

- Keyword and placement ideas - With the new TargetingIdeaService, you'll be able to get keyword and placement ideas through the API, leveraging the functionality of the search-based keyword tool.

- Location Extensions preview - Limited location extensions functionality is now available as a preview of the full functionality in development.

These are just the highlights. Google has a complete list of all of the new features in its release notes.

The company says that over the next few months, it will continue to introduce new features and additional AdWords functionality. New features will include ReportService, AccountService and the ability to pre-check for errors.

"Given that v2009 introduces new concepts and features, we have extended the sunset period for deprecated services to 6 months," Google says. "If you haven't already begun migrating your systems to the v2009 API, we strongly encourage you to start right away."

v13 services CampaignService, AdGroupService, CriterionService, AdService, InfoService, KeywordToolService, and SiteSuggestionService will sunset on April 22, 2010. Other v13 service sunset dates will be announced in due time.

Amazon Opens Kindle to Third-Party Apps

Amazon announced that it is inviting software developers to build and upload "active content" that will be available in the Kindle Store. In other words, look for something like an app store for the Kindle in the future.

The company is releasing a new Kindle Development Kit, which gives developers access to APIs, tools, and documentation to build such active content. The kit starts limited beta mode next month, but developers can currently sign up to be notified when that begins.

"We've heard from lots of developers over the past two years who are excited to build on top of Kindle," said Ian Freed, Vice President, Amazon Kindle. "The Kindle Development Kit opens many possibilities--we look forward to being surprised by what developers invent."

Participants in the beta will be able to download the kit, access developer support and text content on the Kindle, as well as submit finished content, once the beta goes live next month.

"Those wait-listed will be invited to participate as space becomes available," says Amazon. "The Kindle Development Kit includes sample code, documentation, and the Kindle Simulator, which helps developers build and test their content by simulating the 6-inch Kindle and 9.7-inch Kindle DX on Mac, PC, and Linux desktops."

On a related note, Amazon is apparently giving a money-back guarantee on Kindle devices. People can get their money back and keep the Kindle if they "don't love it." It's unclear how this "love" will be determined by the company, but Amazon has reportedly confirmed the legitimacy of the deal.


Have You Read This?

> Amazon Kindle Publishers and Authors to Get More Royalties

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> Amazon In eBook Deal With Best Selling Author

Google Analytics API Gets New Features

Google has launched some new features for the Google Analytics API. These include support for advanced segments and 48 new metrics around goal performance, as well as goal configuration data.

"With advanced segmentation, you can look beyond your aggregated data and peer into the nuances of traffic and visitor activity on your site," says Nick Mihailovski of the Google Analytics API Team. "For example, the average time on site for all visits could be 60 seconds, but when you segment by country, you might learn that average time on site of visits from Germany is over 2 minutes."

Google has added two new ways to use advanced segments through the API including creating them on the fly by specifying their expression directly through an API query and using advanced segments created in the Google Analytics web interface through the API.

The following video shows how to work with goal configuration data in the API.

Google has also added 10 new dimensions to access custom variable data and each one that is used is available through the account feed.

Google has updated all of its documentation for the API, and is encouraging the continued feedback of users.

Have You Read This?

> Google Analytics Gets a Bunch of New Features

> Correcting Your Web Analytics Mistakes

> Google Adds Heavily Requested Features to Analytics API

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