To interact with this page you must login.
Signup
technology
understand
What is the difference between a platform and a service?
I remember asking Evan Williams when he was first talking about Twitter, "Are you building a platform or a service?" I'll never forget his answer: "Do I have to decide?"
So what do you think? What's the difference? Is there a difference?
So what do you think? What's the difference? Is there a difference?
technologyunderstand
A platform is a service that external services can build upon, to make new services, with all the services existing within one environment. A good example of this is the Facebook Platform. Facebook is a walled garden, with the Applications and Pages living within that environment. A good example of a product is Myspace, as it doesn't have a platform.
Facebook started out as a product, and transtioned itself into a platform. Twitter started off as a (semi) platform and is moving towards being a product. It is doing this by deprecating the xAuth API that Twitter clients use, telling people to stop making client APIs, banning advertising networks except for their own, putting adverts inside the news feed, and buying clients and starting competing services within the Twitter ecosystem. Twitter developers (including Twitpic and Ubertwitter) are not happy, they feel betrayed.
People are learning that there is something more valuable than selling products, and that's to harbour people's identities, and a good way of doing that is by creating a platform.
Twitter is aiming to be a product and a platform. The sad fact is that Twitter is a closed platform. They will not let you access any further than your last 3200 tweets, even using external services! That's why I backed up my tweets.
A good example of a platform only social network is Buddycloud, as they are decentralised, and anyone can make their own Channel.