Twitter vs LinkedIn

So LinkedIn ends their twitter sync partnership. Or, technically, I suppose Twitter ends their LinkedIn partnership. Either way though, I’m kind of relieved. No, really, logging into LinkedIn to see a clone of my twitter feed was a little annoying, especially since I knew I was losing out on pure Linkedin content.

That said, I’m wondering if this will become a downward slide for Twitter and its content/developer partnerships. Reading their blogpost, they mention recently enforcing their developer rules, which contains clauses like developers shouldn’t deliver a similar experience to what twitter is already providing. While the intention may be right — it would theoretically push developers to get creative about creating twitter clients — it would also start causing problems for businesses who sole product is a Twitter client which mimics the Twitter experience but does it much better (and typically with much needed features).

My favorite iPhone twitter client is Twittelator Neue. It’s a smooth experience, with my favorite font and awesome previews and conversation views available. But based on the rules, Twitter could say they are delivering a similar experience — with a feed for your Twitter activity, despite the fact that Twitter’s own client is a lot worse (being forced to use Twitter’s RT method is not the only problem I have with it).

But I’m digressing. The point is that Twitter  will start alienating developers and other networks if they keep this up. I’m sure LinkedIn was not pleased.