I’ve been writing a series of posts that emphasize the huge potential of Twitter allowing developers to place apps in tweets, but they all hinge on a critical issue: trust. Apps in tweets eliminate the need for click-throughs, because everything is now already in Twitter. If Twitter is the portal for a new generation of ecommerce, then everyone will have to implicitly trust what they find in Twitter. Most users will think that Twitter as a company is part of their transactions performed in tweet apps.

This confusion is similar to the origin of ecommerce back in the early dotcom. People would come to the sites I helped build at Andover.net, click a banner ad, and then make a purchase at the site the ad sent them too. When they had a problem with the purchase, they would complain to us, because they thought they had made the purchase from our site. This confusion of exactly where they “were” at any time on the web resolved after a few years, but it is sure to resurface with apps in Tweets.

How will Twitter deal with this trust issue? My fear is that they will try to strictly control who gets to build apps in tweets. The early stages of this attempt at control can be seen with Twitter Cards. These are the current precursors to apps in Tweets. Unlike the rest of the Twitter API, which is open to anyone with no approval required, developers must apply before they are even allowed to try working with Twitter Cards.

I understand Twitter’s point of view on this. They need to make sure reliable developers are building apps in tweets that users will think are actually coming from Twitter, but strict control and pre-approval is not how the Twitter API became so successful. I started working with the Twitter API 3 years ago exactly because there was no approval process, unlike Facebook, which played favorites with who it would allow to build apps. I’m certain that the same thing happened with the hundreds of thousands of developers who are working now with the Twitter API. I hate to be negative, and I really, really want to apps in tweets to succeed, but if Twitter has to approve each developer and app individually, the likelihood of failure is high.

So this is the pressure point around which the future of apps in tweets hinges. Twitter somehow has to find a way to maintain trust and security with apps in tweets while allowing a wide range of people to build these apps. If they decide to only allow venture funded companies in the Valley, or companies who make large ad buys to build apps in tweets, they will never reach critical mass.

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, or hotel, but then they have to click on the link inside the tweet to take action. What if I could tweet about a book I just read, and include an Amazon order form for that book within the tweet? Think that would increase the sales rate?

Now multiply that by every form of ecommerce, and realize that all of these application areas are open for commercial exploitation with tweets: hotel reservations, movie and concert tickets, music downloads, clothing purchases, stock trading. Basically the entire ecommerce field will get reinvented. Some current leaders will keep winning, like Amazon, but there will be many more new first movers in this space.

Yes, there are all kinds of issues about trust and security, but those exist on the web already. I remember when everyone was afraid to give their credit card to a website. Things are scary until they aren’t. Once they’re not, nobody worries about it. Anyone remember when microwaves were scary? Getting used to buying something from within a tweet will take a few months at the most.

Keep in mind that Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s chairman, also runs the payment service Square. What an interesting possibility for an acquisition by Twitter. At the very least, he is well aware of the internal issues of online payments.

Right now everyone is looking at Twitter’s attempts to tighten their control over tweets as an advertising play. That may be what they’re thinking about, but as an entrepreneur and Twitter API developer, I’m thinking about all the money to be made within tweets.