Twitter Stops Showing Source of Tweets on Web Version

By Cynthia Herbert :: 1:24 AM

Twitter no longer displays the name of the application used when a Tweet is posted – at least not on the web version of Twitter.com.

Although the app name had been removed from Tweets in Twitter’s mobile app, yesterday’s move on Twitter.com only adds more fuel to the fire that Twitter is building under its developer community. Like the API changes of the last several weeks, this move is most likely designed to send a message to all the third-party Twitter client developers  – “your time is limited.”

Before this change, users could click on the detail link of a Tweet (the day/time stamp) and open the Tweet on its own link, where the exact day and time of the Tweet would be shown, as well as the service used to post the Tweet – such as TweetDeck, HootSuite, Sprout Social, etc. Now when a Tweet is expanded, the date and time are still visible, but the application name is removed.

While this may seem like a minor, trivial point, this was no doubt the way that many people learned of the availability of third-party applications to access and interact with Twitter. Many Twitter newbies start out on the web client, and graduate to a more robust Tweeting solution, such as TweetDeck or YoruFukurou when they find the need to organize the people they are following, or when they attempt to follow multiple topics or from multiple accounts.

It is still too early to tell how much of a blow this will deal to the third-party application developers, already reeling from a tough couple of weeks under Twitter’s slowly closing death grip. That death grip has one mission – to drive all Twitter users to experience Twitter content the way that Twitter wants you to – not the way that you want to.