Instead of making use of the variety of communities existing over the net, a wind of mutual restriction blows over the world of social networks. Services like Facebook and Twitter keep blocking their services for each other more and more. Current examples proving this development include the video sharing-app "Vine" by Twitter and the searching-app Wonder by Yandex Facebook blocked from accessing Facebook services.
Vine blocked (source: TECHi) |
Vine prohibited from searching for Facebook friends
According to AllThingsD, just a few hours after Twitter published an app called Vine last Thursday, the "Find People" function has been blocked by Facebook. This function has been added to help users find friends on Facebook using this app as well.
Twitter's block for Instagram
This block is no surprise, and isn't the first of its kind, either: After Facebook forbid the preview of Photos from its newly acquired service Instagram on Twitter, Twitter blocked the "Find your friends" feature on Instagram.
No access for the Social Search App
The Social Search app by the Russian search engine called Yandex has also been a victim of a block by Facebook, according to TechCrunch. The iOS searches for friends by accessing Facebook, Instagram, Foursquare and Twitter. Facebook's API Guidelines forbid the usage of its service by search engines. Yandex doesn't see its app as a search engine and has already engaged lawyers on that case.
No competitive messengers
The voice messanging app Voxer had to face the same destiny. It's friends searching function has been disallowed to make use of Facebook's user database. The statement that Facebook gave to TechCrunch was that they wouldn't want to give access to competing messengers without any rewards.
Block for beneficiaries
By taking these measures, Facebook is trying to prevent third party developers and competitors to benefit from the thing thay have having the highest value - their huge user database - without giving anything in return. While the approach Facebook takes is understandable, if Facebook keeps proceeds being so strict, this might demotivate developers from developing apps for Facebook.
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