Developers didn't even need 140 characters to describe their reaction to Apple's reported $200 million acquisition of Topsy last week.
For the most part, the first tweets from devs following the consumer tech giant's purchase of the social analytics search vendor could be summed up by "Whoah!" and "Interesting move," among other things. Generally speaking, though, the outlook so far seems pretty positive.
Congrats to team @topsy! Apple buys Topsy, a Twitter search and analytics firm http://t.co/5ImWjg0CBc via @verge
— Ian Schafer (@ischafer) December 3, 2013
Given that Apple has rarely been successful in using or offering social services itself (think Ping), the discussion online soon turned to why Topsy would be an attractive takeover target. Some thought Topsy's technology might be less useful on smartphones than on other kinds of consumer devices, including a few Apple has yet to fully develop and release.
Did Apple buy Topsy to integrate social listening with Apple TV? http://t.co/bf0qkIOtPX
— Lindsey Wiebe (@liwiebe) December 5, 2013
More likely, suggested a few bloggers, was that Apple sees Topsy as a way to improve search within its App Store and help social media users connect with iOS apps that will be more relevant.
"we're still stuck in a UI of app-filled screens, most of which we never use, each disconnected from the other" http://t.co/Z2asGAKmxS
— Jonathan Abrams (@abrams) December 5, 2013
Good view of Apple/Topsy deal: at some point "search" becomes "use"; apps are just optimized containers for info. http://t.co/LnR0Mu85vd
— BrooksTalley (@brookstalley) December 4, 2013
Whatever its reasons, however, for most Topsy users it all comes down to this:
Apple buys Topsy to track Twitter http://t.co/WF7B783DJM - Please don't shut it down, I really like Topsy.
— Jon Galloway (@jongalloway) December 3, 2013