Adam Green
Twitter API Consultant
adam@140dev.com
781-879-2960
@140dev

But how do apps get into tweets?

July 16, 2012

One thing that puzzles me about apps in tweets is figuring out how to get them there. I understand how Twitter apps in websites or on mobile work. A developer builds a website or mobile app, and adds code that interacts with the Twitter API and probably a database on their server as well. That [...]

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Twitter docs are improving

July 14, 2012

I’ve been using the same database schema for recording Twitter user information for a couple of years. I recently agreed to do a training session on Twitter follow programming for the Boston PHP Meetup group, so I decided to check out the Twitter API docs to see if they have gotten any better. I found [...]

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FUD, Day 15

July 14, 2012

It’s now been 15 days since Sippey’s FUD bomb. There have been dozens of news stories and blog posts by developers trying to determine the meaning behind this message. The one thing we know for sure is that Twitter HQ has not said a single word in additional explanation. Anyone find any irony in the [...]

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OAuth without the dance

July 14, 2012

One benefit of running an app within Twitter.com is that it will eliminate the need for the OAuth dance. That is the complex exchange that goes on between a website and the Twitter API when the user logs into Twitter through the website. This communication is necessary to deliver a set of authorization keys that [...]

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Ecommerce in tweets will transform the web

July 13, 2012

Now that I’ve relaxed and decided to embrace the idea of apps in tweets, the possibilities are amazing. What it all comes down to is ecommerce from within a tweet. That is the game changer. Right now tweets are only a pointer, not a destination. I can tell someone about a great restaurant, or book, [...]

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The coming Twitter land rush

July 12, 2012

“We want developers to be able to build applications that run within Tweets.” – @Sippey post on changes to Twitter API I’ve been through the usual round of emotions in reaction to one of Twitter’s periodic “adjustments” to the Twitter API access rules. Denial and anger took a few days. I tried bargaining with my [...]

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Interesting solution to reductions in Twitter API rate limits

July 10, 2012

Now that Twitter is once again threatening to cut back on access to the API, I decided to write this week’s ProgrammableWeb post on an interesting solution to rate limits. I certainly hope Twitter will change their direction and give us all more access, but if they don’t, browser based API programming is an architecture [...]

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New column on Twitter API best practices

June 26, 2012

I’ve started writing a weekly column for ProgrammableWeb.com. After doing Twitter API programming for over 3 years, I want to start distilling the best practices I use in my work. Each column will cover a single aspect of the API, and compare the pros and cons of 2 or 3 approaches. The first column was [...]

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How is Twitter programming better than Twitter search?

June 8, 2012

This is a question I frequently get asked by new clients. They know there is a Twitter API available to collect tweets, but they have no idea how the results differ from just asking for tweets with Search.Twitter.com. I’ve recently explained the fact that a tweet database lets you create a long-term store that cannot [...]

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Go with the flow when creating a tweet collection database

June 7, 2012

When new Twitter consulting clients ask me to plan a tweet collection database, the first question they always ask is how much it will cost. I can give them a rough estimate for the cost of my programming time based on their desired features, but it is impossible to know how much server power they [...]

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Twitter Consulting Tip: Twitter is people

June 2, 2012

Lots of people ask us to build databases of tweets, but they seem to miss the fact that along with the tweets you can also collect an amazing database of people. Data about the people who tweet is the proverbial low hanging fruit. The Twitter API gives you the complete profile of the author of [...]

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Twitter Consultant Tip: Start with Twitter API rate limits

June 1, 2012

A good Twitter consultant should start any discussion with a potential client by reviewing the Twitter API rate limits on the features they want. This is really a case of form follows function. Twitter has defined what developers should be doing through their wide range of rate limits, and you better pay attention to them [...]

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