The Inquisitr » summize

Twitter to do live video – sucks to be a developer

Steven Hodson — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 17:20:10 +0000

Real-time video tweets.

Sounds familiar?

Well it should since there are several developers who have tried to build a business on top of Twitter by providing a similar service. However developers like Twitpic, the current favorite, Twiddeo and Tweetube can only supply a link within a Twitter message that leads to the site where the video message is posted. What Twitter apparently plans on doing as some sort of “modernization” of the service is to allow video Twitter messages to be posted to the timelines.

This is all according to a post at the Telegraph Online and from a discussion among the founders of Twitter about what can be done to help upgrade the service and make it even more popular.

This type of copying from Twitter is nothing new. Rather than build or improve their own search Twitter bought Summize. Retweeting becomes popular and rather than work with the format developed by both users and developers Twitter scrambles it all up with their own interpretation of how retweets should work on the service. Now they want to get into video messages much like 12Seconds or the other three services mentioned effectively shutting those developers out of the Twitter universe.

If you don’t think so just look to bit.ly as a prime example. Up until Twitter made them the default URL shortener they were just another service getting some good press and threatening TinyURL. Once they became the preferred shortener bit.ly overtook TinyURL and is now the most used URL shortener.

Developing for the Twitter platform is becoming a highly questionable venture as you never know if Twitter is suddenly going to take an interest in whatever niche of the Twittersphere you are trying to work in. But be assured if they do and they decide to go it alone you might as well fold up shop.

Twitter Officially Takes Summize

JR — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:42:16 +0000

It’s official: Twitter has taken Summize under its wing.

An acquisition was formally announced this afternoon. Summize’s services will be integrated under the Twitter brand and its staff of five engineers will move into Twitter’s San Francisco office.

As Twitter’s blog explains:

“Keeping up with interesting news and people you care about is one dimension of Twitter, but what if you need to find out what’s happening in the world beyond your personal timeline? How do you find out about updates from Mars? What do people think of the new Will Smith movie? Providing tools for filtering all the real-time information coursing through Twitter has long been part of our vision.

We introduced a feature called Track close to a year ago because we recognized filtering as a key component of the Twitter experience. The folks over at Summize discovered Twitter and significantly improved on this idea of filtering and search.”

The Summize features will start appearing in the near future, though no specific date has been mentioned.

So could Summize save Twitter? The Inquisitr Editor Duncan Riley had some thoughts about its value when the acquisition rumors first surfaced.

“If Twitter acquires Summize, it’s the investors buying competent management that understands scaling, a management team who might be able to save Twitter from its self inflicted death spiral. Here’s hoping that the fresh blood takes control soon,” he wrote last Monday.

Now that the deal is done, of course, only time will tell what it will — or won’t — change when it comes to the big picture.

Summize

For Twitter, Summize would be a talent buy

Duncan Riley — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:24:40 +0000

The hot rumor, seemingly traceable to this post by Josh Chandler, has Twitter buying Twitter search service Summize. It’s not confirmed yet, and given it took over a week for Twitter to confirm its last round of founding, don’t expect a denial or official confirmation any time soon.

Most people seem to be focused on the Summize platform, in that it will immediately deliver Twitter search, and at least one feature that doesn’t go down on a regular basis. Sure, the Summize platform will be a nice value add to Twitter, but if this deal is happening, is it really about the tech, or is it about the people behind the tech?

Consider that Twitter now has Bijan Sabet and Jeff Bezos on the board, both very smart guys. Do you think someone of the standing of Jeff Bezos is going to sit back and allow the Twitter train wreck to keep on chugging without radical change? The current management of Twitter seems incapable of doing much at all, which means Twitter desperately needs competent, new blood.

Enter the Summize team.

CEO Ajaipal “Jay” Virdy was previously a Senior Tech Manager at AOL, where he ended up after AOL acquired his earlier startup Localeyes. CTO and Co-founder Greg Pass was a systems architect at AOL, and prior to that was CEO of ToFish…another company acquired by AOL. Science Advisor Abdur Chowdhury ex-AOL systems architect who also spent a year at Revolution Health. Do I need to highlight more?

If Twitter acquires Summize, it’s the investors buying competent management that understands scaling, a management team who might be able to save Twitter from its self inflicted death spiral. Here’s hoping that the fresh blood takes control soon.

Read more about Summize on QBase here.

Summize