Comments on: 4 Scary Scenarios That Twitter’s New Terms Allow

By: Wayne Farmer

Wayne Farmer — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 19:10:13 +0000

And indeed they do. It was right there in front of me, and I missed it. At the 2nd link I gave above ( http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Things-Every-Developer-Should-Know#6Therear epaginationlimits ), these words appear:

“Twitter still maintains a database of all the tweets sent by a user.”

So for now, everything you’ve ever tweeted is there in Twitter’s files. Any estimates as to the size of that database and the annual cost to maintain it? I would think that Twitter was betting on being able to recover that cost by selling convenient access to all of it for a price.

Not that that’s a completely new idea. When Google acquired the Usenet archives, they established a similar resource. I can easily find Usenet posts that I made in 1994 – that’s 15 years ago.

By: Wayne Farmer

Wayne Farmer — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 18:54:49 +0000

Regarding #3, after reading in an earlier version of the Twitter API Documentation about a “Data Mining” interface, I assumed that was the real money-producing rationale for twitter: to allow organizations to identify customers by searching through their past tweets. There’s still some reference to data mining in the current API (see http://apiwiki.twitter.com/FAQ#WhatstheDataMiningFeedandcanInbsphaveac cesstoit ) but, now it seems to me that the “Data Mining” interface is more a way for organizations to tap into the real-time Twitter stream and form their own databases. But I could be wrong.

Does Twitter itself keep a database of all tweets since the service started? Well, they say you can only search about 1 1/2 weeks back: http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Things-Every-Developer-Should-Know#6Therear epaginationlimits . But if you use the web interface to look at http://twitter.com/twitter , and keep clicking “more”, you can read @twitter’s tweets at least as far back as June 2008, which is more than a year ago.

So I’d say Twitter is sitting on top of a gold mine of all the tweets ever tweeted, and is looking for ways to sell convenient access to those tweets for a price.

By: Advisign – Recht und Webdesign » Blog Archiv » Neue Twitter-AGB: Medienkompetenz, die schon meine Oma kannte

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 19:51:54 +0000

[...] neuen Twitter-AGB schaute, stellte ich fest – “Oh, das behält sich Twitter ja auch vor“. Aber ich fühlte mich anders. Nicht entrüstet. Ganz im [...]

By: 4ndyman

4ndyman — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:21:29 +0000

I don’t think you should worry too much about #3. IT’s because of #3 that, someday, you’ll be able to stream your tweetfeeds to your Wii or Xbox. And isn’t most of that “mountain of data” already available, or at least accessible, for free? Why would a company pay for that?

By: michael

michael — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 13:18:08 +0000

I was getting emails all weekend about the new terms. Thanks for putting it all together on what I need to know.

By: Gebadia Smith

Gebadia Smith — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 17:02:00 +0000

I think you are worrying too much. It is like there is crime in my city. But generally if I don’t go looking for it, it won’t find me. The reality is regardless of what TOS says there will be ads, in fact I am surprised twitter doesn’t just embed cj.com, google affiliate network ads beneath any links that apply.. all our info is packaged and sold.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 21:03:27 +0000

You should look at this:

http://justinmclachlan.com/2009/09/1905/how-far-do-you-want-twitter-to -follow-you/

By: Dean

Dean — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 19:30:44 +0000

Twitter has right to regulate and monetize the service as they see fit (after all this isn’t a charity they’re running) If, however, they overstep the boundaries that its user’s hold dear, they will lose them. Simply put, each side will keep the other side honest.

Frankly, they better figure out a way to monetize the solution soon or we’ll be lamenting the loss of the solution altogether.

As a side note, I am continually amazed at how bugged out we get with online services’ ToS (free online services, no less) yet willingly let grocery stores collect and sell info every transaction we make . Think about that next time you buy a pack of smokes and a pound of bacon

By: James Pickett

James Pickett — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 16:50:00 +0000

So… if I, as a photographer, post a photo that is © protected, then twitter according to the new TOS allowed to use and sell it for advertising?

By: gary golembroski

gary golembroski — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:48:29 +0000

Okay, now they have all the legal stuff covered, how about making some money!