Updated
If youa4ぎa4вe wondering how Twitter feels about UberMediaa4ぎa4г efforts to roll-up many of the top Twitter apps into a single company, there was a pretty big hint today with the suspension of UberMediaa4ぎa4г UberTwitter, Twidroyd, and UberCurrent apps.
In a statement being sent to reporters, Twitter offers this explanation:
We ask all developers in the Twitter ecosystem to abide by a simple set of rules that are in the interests of our users, as well as the health and vitality of the platform as a whole.
We often take actions to enforce these rules' in fact, on an average day we turn off more than one hundred services that violate our API rules of the road. This keeps the ecosystem fair for everyone.
Today we suspended several applications, including UberTwitter, twidroyd and UberCurrent, which have violated Twitter policies and trademarks in a variety of ways. These violations include, but arena4ぎa4д limited to, a privacy issue with private Direct Messages longer than 140 characters, trademark infringement, and changing the content of usersa4ぎa4 Tweets in order to make money.
Wea4ぎa4ёe had conversations with UberMedia, the developer of these applications, about policy violations since April 2010, when they first launched under the name TweetUp a4ぎa4 a term commonly used by Twitter users and a trademark violation. We continue to be in contact with UberMedia and hope that they will bring the suspended applications into compliance with our policies soon.
Twitter also posted an article in its Help Center for users who hare having trouble logging into UberTwitter and Twidroyd (because theya4ぎa4вe blocked), saying it is a4ぎAcommitted to helping you continue to use Twitter during the disruption of these applications.a4ぎ How can Twitter help those users By pointing them to its own official mobile apps, naturally &8212' even before launching into an explanation, the article features big links to Twitter for BlackBerry, Twitter for iPhone, and Twitter for Android.
If the suspension drags on, UberMedia could end up losing many of its users to Twittera4ぎa4г official apps. And even if this is resolved quickly, the dispute underlines some of the big questions about UberMediaa4ぎa4г long-term potential, since ita4ぎa4г building its business almost entirely on top of Twitter &8212' chief executive Bill Gross has said that he wants to be a4ぎAthe best partner to Twitter in enhancing the Twitter ecosystem.a4ぎ That might be a challenge if the relationship continues to be combative.
On the other hand, Twitter has some incentive to patch things up with UberMedia, especially if the reports that UberMedia is on the verge of acquiring TweetDeck are true. With that acquisition, Seesmic CEO Loic Le Meur estimates that UberMediaa4ぎa4г apps will be responsible for 20 percent of all daily tweets, meaning its user base can&'t simply be dismissed.
Spats between a startup building on a platform and the company responsible for that platform dona4ぎa4д always lead to long-term trouble. Facebook and social gaming company Zynga approached what VentureBeata4ぎa4г Dean Takahashi called a4ぎAnuclear wara4ぎ last year, but they reached a compromise, now Zynga is reportedly worth $10 billion, more than twice as much as Twitter. (Of course, it helps that Zynga has made efforts to establish a presence outside Facebook as well.)
I&'ve emailed UberMedia for comment and will update if I hear back.
Update: Gross told TechCrunch that the suspension &''took us by surprise&'' but that he will make whatever changes are necessary, including the change of UberTwitter&'s name to UberSocial.
And here&'s the full statement from the company:
Early Friday morning, Twitter shut off access to its service by several of our Twitter client applications: UberTwitter, Twidroyd, and UberCurrent. Twitter then notified us that they believed we were in violation of several provisions of their terms of service.
We were immediately in touch with Twitter, and the changes they asked us to make were very small. As a result, we have completed the changes, and new apps are currently being posted to their respective stores. Twitter has assured us that as soon as those changes were complete, they would reactivate our applications.
Twitter also asked us to modify the name of UberTwitter. We began a process of changing the name three weeks ago by polling our users, and wea4ぎa4ёe decided based on their input to change the product name to UberSocial, which we completed today.
To our millions of loyal users, we appreciate your patience during this temporary period. We look forward to continuing our innovations on the Twitter platform.
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Companies: TweetDeck, Twitter, UberMedia
People: Bill Gross
Companies: TweetDeck, Twitter, UberMedia
People: Bill Gross
Anthony is a senior editor at VentureBeat, as well as its reporter on media, advertising, and social networks. Before joining the site in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. (All story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com) You can also follow Anthony on Twitter.
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