The trust that many people have in Twitter has been shaken recently by three major events – but there’s one idea that could solve some of the problems.
The events have been:
- A major Twitter phishing attack, which resulted in spam Direct Messages from comprimised accounts.
- High profile Twitter accounts being hacked – apparently by a fairly simple brute force dictionary attack on someone with access to Twitter support tools.
- Strange Display Errors – which turn out to be due to the combined forces of mass tweets from Macworld and CES.
Stopping anyone with admin access from using a password like ‘happiness’ should cure point number 2, and deadling with mass traffic is something that only Twitter itself can solve.
However, the loss of trust in applications is something that effects the whole Twitter ecosystem, as Mark Evans writes on Twitterati. And even implenting the much-requested OAuth as a technical solution doesn’t guarantee a rogue app can’t affect people. (via the MrTweet Blog)
So what’s the solution then?
It’s a simple idea – there are a lot of sites currently listing Twitter applications as soon as they become available to be the first to carry the news, and also to be a useful resource.
But what about an agreement between some of the Twitter bloggers and established app developers to implement a testing and approval procedure – a relatively simple process which could then list approved and tested applications, and allow them to display an badge of approval.
What gives bloggers the right?
The reason for pulling together reasonably prominent bloggers to implement approval is that we have something to lose if we’re not utterly honest – anyone can update the Twitter wiki with a link to a malicious application, but if 5 prominent Twitter bloggers did it, we’d all lose trust and social reputation, so it keeps us honest.
So what are the benefits?
- A list of Twitter applications which are being used and monitored to ensure they work as stated
- An independent approval system by people with a vested interest in keeping things honest
- More authoritative testing, and a larger quantity of apps being tested than each of us stating individually which apps we use – and a safeguard in case we’re tempted to recommend something without taking a proper look because we’re busy or going on holiday that week.
- And it means developers can display something to give them a trusted status without the need for a paid store (like the iPhone store), or worrying about being tarred with the same brush as malicious scammers?
So I’m throwing it open – good idea or bad? And are my fellow Twitter bloggers interested?