Twitter Swallows Summize to Build Search Engine
If there were a prize for the most obvious acquisition Twitter would go home with the trophy for picking up Summize. The deal fits well for Twitter since Summize was able to do the one thing Twitter itself has never quite mastered — bring order to the chaos of the Twitterverse.
Summize has already been rolled into Twitter’s latest feature — realtime searching. The new search.twitter.com looks and feels just like Summize and the very popular Summize API has been rolled into the existing the Twitter API.
If you built an app using the Summize API don’t panic; Twitter says the old Summize API URLs will continue to work until further notice. The only real change to the Twitter version of the API is the new search.twitter URL.
However, now that the two services are one, we’re looking forward to some even better mashups and, as many have pointed out, this gives Twitter a whole new range of options when it comes to its revenue model.
If you’d like to hear what Evan Williams, founder of Twitter has to say about the deal, TechCrunch has a rather long, but thorough interview in which Williams talks about Summize, the future of the Twitter API and more.
Summize is a natural fit for Twitter and should help the service be a little more approachable. We’d like to see Quotably rolled in as well, but at least this is a good start.
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