observations and reports

Twitter has been open with its data from the start, and widely available APIs have created a huge variety of applications and fast adoption. But by making their platform so open, Twitter has fewer options for monetization. The one thing they can do that nobody else can — because they’re the message bus — is to rewrite tweets in transit. That includes hashtags and URLs. Twitter could turn #coffee into #starbucks. They could replace a big URL with a short one. And that gives them tremendous power. Twitter recently announced a new feature that makes this a reality. The t.co URL shortener — similar to those from bit.ly, awe.sm, and tinyURL — might seem like a relatively small addition to the company’s offering. But it’s a massive power shift in the world of analytics because now Twitter can measure engagement wherever it happens, across any browser or app.