Twitter widens access to 'Firehose' of data

Twitter already has data deals with Microsoft, Google and Yahoo

Twitter has announced plans to open up even more of its data to partners, as it has done already with Microsoft, Google and Yahoo. The firm calls the full feed of all public tweets its 'Firehose' of data.

Twitter has always had an open application programming interface that allows other web services and applications to integrate with the service, and the company claims that more than 50,000 applications are currently using the platform.

"With access to the full Firehose of data, it is possible to move far beyond the Twitter experiences we know today. In fact, we are pretty sure that some amazing innovation is possible," the firm said in a blog post.

"If you think there may be a potential partnership involving access to the Firehose, let's start a conversation."

Partners to gain access to the full Firehose of data today include small start-ups such as Ellerdale, Collecta, Kosmix, Scoopler, twazzup, CrowdEye and Chainn Search.

The Twitter partnership with Microsoft allows status updates to be included in Bing search engine results. Similarly, Google includes tweets in its search results.

Yahoo said last week that it will allow users to access personal Twitter feeds from their Yahoo homepage, as well as from Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Sports.