Popular microblog Twitter has blocked third-party mobile Twitter apps Twidroyd and UberTwitter on Friday, citing unspecified policy violations.
"Every day, we suspend hundreds of applications that are in violation of our policies," the Twitter Help Center blog said Friday. "Generally, these apps are used by a small number of users. We are taking the unusual step of sharing this with you because today's suspension may affect a larger number of users."
Indeed, both of these applications are extremely popular.
The popular Twitter applications also happen to both be owned by UberMedia, a company which has similar clients on all mobile and desktop platforms, and has been regularly acquiring software startups to broaden its presence and build new services and features into them.
Effectively, the company has been building a better Twitter (or at least better Twitter apps.)
Earlier this week, UberMedia announced it received $17.5 million in funding from Accel Ventures, and that investor Jim Breyer would join the company's board of directors. Breyer has been on the boards of Facebook, Dell, Wal-Mart, and Marvel Entertainment.
UberMedia's aggressive acquisition strategy, extremely popular software offerings, and recent Board addition all make it a threat to Twitter's extremely high market value.
At 3:22pm EST on Friday, a statement from UberMedia's Twidroyd Twitter feed said: "A new version of twidroyd that resolves our twitter ban will be avail. shortly on the android market."
Shortly thereafter, Bill Gross, CEO of UberMedia issued the following statement:
"We were immediately in touch with Twitter, and the changes they asked us to make were very small. As a result, we have completed the changes, and new apps are currently being posted to their respective stores. Twitter has assured us that as soon as those changes were complete, they would reactivate our applications. Twitter also asked us to modify the name of UberTwitter. We began a process of changing the name three weeks ago by polling our users, and we've decided based on their input to change the product name to UberSocial, which we completed today. To our millions of loyal users, we appreciate your patience during this temporary period. We look forward to continuing our innovations on the Twitter platform."Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
