Zhephree

I’ve had a few ask me, and I was wondering myself, how the recent change in Twitter’s Terms of Use will affect the inclusion of Twitter in incredible!. I found a few blog posts that say some scary things, for instance:

The changes to the terms of service that were introduced today prevent third-party developers from displaying data from alternate services alongside data from Twitter’s APIs. The intention is to block developers from presenting their own trending topics or follower recommendations in Twitter client applications. Sarver hints that more significant changes could come in the future, possibly including limits on what words applications use to describe features.

from Ars Tehcnica

Based on that paragraph alone, it sounds like Twitter content cannot be displayed with other social network data, which is EXACTLY was the entire purpose of incredible! is. It intertwines Twitter content with Facebook, foursquare, etc. This got me nervous, so I dove into the newly updated Twitter Terms of Use for their API. It sounds less scary there.

For instance, in section III.2.C from the API Terms,

If your service displays Updates commingled with Tweets, you must ensure that Tweets reference Twitter as the source.

It sound like that you can have Twitter content (Tweets) mixed in with other updates from another service, as long as the Tweets are clearly labeled as Tweets, which incredible! already does by displaying the Twitter logo next to Tweets.

So, it seems like the core functionality of incredible! won’t be hurt by these changes, however, some features will be scratched, or altered as a result.

For instance, because of section I.5.A:

Your Client must use the Twitter API as the sole source for features that are substantially similar to functionality offered by Twitter. Some examples include trending topics, who to follow, and suggested user lists.

This means that the incredible! feature that makes a list of things your friends are talking about, aggregated from ALL of your social networks cannot exist because it’s basically Trending Topics. If I show any Trending Topics, I can only show ones direct from Twitter, not ones I generate myself based on other content. This sucks — a lot. Not just because you guys will be missing out on an awesome and unique feature, but also because I spent a lot of time developing the algorithm to determine trending topics.

I’m not 100% sure what this means in terms of the duplicate detection that incredible! employs. For instance, incredible! will see that a friend posted the exact same content to Facebook as a status and Twitter as an update. Instead of displaying essentially the same item back-to-back, incredible! merges the two items together and notes that it is from both Facebook and Twitter by displaying both services’ logos next to it.

Based on the terms, it sounds like in this event, I should favor the Twitter display over the others. So, if a user posts the same thing to Facebook and Twitter, when I merge the two as one item, I should display the content as it appears on Twitter, but also note the other service it is on. Assuming Facebook’s terms don’t force it another way.

Anyway, I’m continually researching this, but I’m not as worried as I was earlier this weekend. I’ll keep you all up to date if anything changes. But the short version is:

Major, core functions of incredible! will not be affected by the Terms changing. Some smaller functions may be altered or removed, but overall, incredible! is still on track.