This is not actually news as this was announced a few months ago. What makes it worthy of a blog post now is because:
1) It is coming into effect,
2) This is seemingly being done in a non-transparent way.
Twitter announced that they are deploying a new look to their tweet icons also stating that they were going to simplify their use. What was failed to be expressly mentioned is a description as to what the effect of this will be. If the idea is to ‘simplify’ the icons, it brings about the question as to why or how removing this icon will achieve that.
If you want to continue to have access to the share data then you still can, but you will be required to pay! You will need to contact a company called Gnip (which is the company purchased to handle Twitter’s business arm.) Once again the procedure is a little hazy and thin on detail. Twitter provide no indication of how much this might cost and how often payment would need to be made for the information. Some reports have quoted eye watering figures, so potentially make sure you sit down when you read the email!
Despite the apparent uncertainty, there is actually a proper and ‘technical’ reasoning behind this decision and the facts can be read on Twitters blog (see: https://twittercommunity.com/t/a-new-design-for-tweet-and-follow-buttons/52791 ) which essentially blames it on third party developers trying to take advantage of simple shortcuts.
So apart from the above, what is the point of this? The answer is unclear and some sceptics may see it as a way of Twitter being greedy and simply penalising the people that help it to become established in the first place.
What is the danger of this? What that is certainly clear. Twitter runs the risk of people either being fed up or totally against this change and therefore eroding some of the need and importance of this facility.
Surely that is what they don’t want!?
To find out more about Twitter, Facebook and Google + you will need our social media page. Click on the link for further details.