Yes, IFTTT is a service beloved by tech nerds, but this change also signals something important about Twitter’s future relationship with developers — something contrary to its previous statements about its recent API changes.
Despite what twitter may or may not have said, it has been clear to me that the twitter API changes over the past few months are a clear warning for developers. This latest move of making IFTTT remove its twitter triggers has to be the death blow for the third party developers community, not just a warning. Come to think of it, the sale of Seesmic to Hootsuite may have been the death blow. In any case, twitter wants you to use its crappy interfaces and lock you in. They are not a platform.
And by the way, its not just twitter. Everyone has realized that they have to earn money. All those venture capitalist are looking for returns on their investment. Even Google is doing this with its walled garden that is Google Plus. Facebook, which always was a walled garden, has dumped HTML5 on its mobile app for a native app and are attempting to bring improved targeted advertising to the users of this native app. Companies building on top of social platforms have failed too. Zyngas stock is down in the dumps even though they actually make money from the virtual goods they sell, etc.
Social as a platform has failed.
