FAQ > general > Isn't it a bad idea to litter Twitter feeds with data intended for machines?
Maybe. Probably. Possibly not.
There are a number of possible concerns, but the most common is probably that applications using Twitter Data will spam Twitter with hard-to-read messages and irk all of the human users.
We agree that this may be a short-term possibility. However, in our opinion, the usefulness of embedding data in Twitter messages outstrips any such concerns, and we are willing to live with any short-term discomfort because it ultimately makes Twitter far more useful to its users.
While it may or may not be a defense, assure yourself that Twitter Data must become reasonably popular before these concerns become salient. If Twitter Data does indeed become popular, that will only be a good thing for us all, because it will mean that a new dimension in Twitter has opened up and that there is a broad usefulness in the Twitter ecosytem. At that point, we expect to see Twitter clients that account for this additional channel of data and limit its impact on us poor humans.
Last updated on May 13, 2009 by Todd Fast
