A less open Twitter may not bode well for innovation in social networking. "If you can't pull the data out that you want, it makes the kind of stuff you can do less and less interesting," says Ed Finkler, a developer who built an open-source Twitter client in 2007 but has stopped work on it, partly because Twitter's rule change last year made developing the app more difficult for him.
Facebook also seems on course for increased friction with third-party developers and startups, especially as its stock price tumbles and pressure to make money mounts.
Last week the social network caused a stir by apparently playing hardball with one developer whose plans might have threatened its growth strategy. When the social network launched its global App Center this week, technology entrepreneur Dalton Caldwell wrote a damning open letter to CEO Mark Zuckerberg accusing Facebook executives of using intimidation to stop him from creating a similar service. Caldwell is now raising money to build an independent network called App.net (see "A Social Network Free of Ads").
Somewhat ironically, Google, which has not yet given app developers access to its own social network, Google
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