Bloggers are up in arms over Twply, a service that allows Twitter users to forward messages to their email addresses. The service has been criticised for being spam and is on sale for $1,200 immediately after launch. The service’s sales listing mentions the possibility of generating revenue through advertising in emails, which some users find unconstitutional.
In addition, the service is not user-friendly, as users can only add their Twitter credentials and leave it running. To disable the service, users can change their Twitter password.
This raises concerns about Twitter’s need for a third-party authentication system, as users don’t need to enter their credentials into random websites to try out new services.
The debacle may be the catalyst for Twitter’s implementation of this feature.