Microblogging service Twitter has introduced new authorisation rules and will also implement URL wrapping in the next few weeks.
The authorisation rule changes, which take effect immediately, mean Twitter applications will no longer be allowed to store a user's password. Twitter applications are programs or add-ons that use the Twitter API to access a user's account. Examples of these include Foursquare, EchoFon and TweetDeck.
According to the www.twitter.com Web site, all Twitter applications will now have to use “OAuth” to access Twitter accounts. OAuth is a technology that allows applications the user has authorised to access his/her account without a password.
“All applications you have authorised will be listed at http://twitter.com/settings/connections. You can revoke access to any application, at any time, from the list,” says Twitter.
The second change is the roll-out of t.co - a “link wrapping service”, which shortens URLs posted in tweets and checks them for malware. Unlike other link shortening services, t.co maintains the domain part of the link so users are aware of what they are clicking on.
“You will start seeing these links on certain accounts that have opted-in to the service; we expect to roll this out to all users by the end of the year. When this happens, all links shared on Twitter.com or third-party apps will be wrapped with a t.co URL,” says the site.
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