Twitter Launches Sign-Up API, Integrates with Citysearch

Twitter is pushing ahead on two fronts with just one move. The company is now launching a new Sign-Up API which allows users to sign up for the service from any third party site or app which implements it. For now, the API isn't public but has already been implemented by online local guide Citysearch. This last bit is important as it shows one way Twitter plans to tackle the business services market.

Citysearch is the latest to partner with Twitter to access its rather valuable but mostly untapped data supply. The microblogging platform has recently signed up both Microsoft and Google which will integrate data from Twitter in their search results in one form or another. Citysearch users will be able to manage their Twitter accounts from the site and tweets from their accounts will also show up on their business page on the local directory site.

This isn't exactly revolutionary though it is a rather deep integration of Twitter features with a very specific market, local businesses. However, if the business doesn't have a Twitter account, it can create one without leaving Citysearch and then proceed to use it just like they would any other account.

There was no financial component to the partnership between Twitter and Citysearch, but the latter company may decide to introduce a premium social media service for its users at some point based in part on the Twitter functionality. “This is another way for us to help businesses manage—or even just create—their social identities, because it gives them one place to respond to reviews, update Facebook and post to Twitter,” Kara Nortman, Citysearch’s SVP of publishing, said.

Twitter's new Sign Up API has some very big implications for Twitter. By allowing users to sing up on other sites, it tackles two problems it’s been having lately. Twitter saw a huge growth in the first part of the year but later stagnated, failing to attract new users for a few months now. The API could mean an influx of new users from the services which decide to implement it. Second, the API could prove equally important for the business services it plans to offer, but which it has failed to provide too much information on so far.