If 2009 was the year that Twitter made it, what will happen in 2010? There has already been talk about implementing “super tweets” that come complete with premium information, but what about Twitter’s inherent strength – its API? The answer might as well lie in solutions and services such as Twitter Formats.
In very general terms, it is a service whereby anybody can add semantics to any given tweet in order for some events to take place.
That is, by employing a specific punctuation or sign you can instruct the Twitter client you use to perform this or the other action. The programmer behind this project (Aral Balkan) defines them as “lightweight client-side APIs that extend Twitter”. For example, some of the featured ones include “tContinuation” and “tDelete”, and they play roles like letting tweeple know that a tweet is not meant to stand alone but will rather be part of a series of updates.
The idea is that people will start submitting commands of their own through the site – a section entitled “Proposal Ping” serves that function. The programmer hopes to create something akin to a destination that will thrive on community interactions, and one whose developments will eventually be noticed and acted upon by those who develop Twitter apps and clients, and Twitter HQ itself.
TwitterFormats.org In Their Own Words
“Twitterformats are community-driven, human-readable/writable, lightweight client-side APIs that extend Twitter to solve practical problems.”
Why TwitterFormats.org It Might Be A Killer
It is an interesting development, and one that will certainly appeal to those who are technically-knowledgeable. The ones that are not that tech-savvy, though, might like to wait a little until it is all better-defined.
Some Questions About TwitterFormats.org
Won’t this make Twitter trickier to use? 
