Twitter Countdown

It’s 9 weeks, 2 days, 5 and some ought hours until Twitter will turn off basic authentication for apps and make making OAuth the only way to connect to Twitter applications.To make sure nobody forgets The Twitter API team have launched a countdown clock which will count down to the “OAuthcalypse” on June 30th 2010.

At the moment there are two ways to connect to Twitter apps: Basic Authentication , where you login with your username and password via third party, or OAuth , which enables you to connect to apps without giving away your account information. The “OAuthcalypse” is seen as part of a move to make Twitter more secure and stable. As of June 30th, apps will no longer be allowed to ask for your username and password.

The announcement was made on the Twitter API , as was the countdown clock , in a statement: “you’re going to be hearing a lot from me over the next 9 weeks. Our plan is to turn off basic authorization on the API by June 30th 2010 — developers will have to switch over to OAuth by that time.”

But what exactly is OAuth?

The OAuth site explains itself through the example of a valet key, ever heard of one? Me neither. Basically it’s a key that comes with some luxury cars today specifically designed for use by a parking attendant; it will not allow the car to drive more than a mile or two, the boot to be opened or the car phone to be used amongst a host of possible restrictions you can implement through it. This idea of giving someone limited access to your car with a special key, while using your regular key to unlock everything else is the basic premise behind OAuth.

Everyday we’re bombarded with online offers for new services, networks or new websites, many of which tie together functionality from other sites – all great services – the downside is the constant request for your username and password. Agreeing to share your login details not only you exposes your password to someone else (yes, the same password you use for everything else, even online banking) and give them full access to do with it what they will.

OAuth is like a valet key, it allows you the User to grant access to your private resources on one site (called the Service Provider), to another site (called Consumer) without sharing any of your login details.

This move to OAuth is an effort to make Twitter more secure and the early announcement and countdown clock ensures developers have plenty of time and notice to switch over their apps to OAuth. The change in policy and the launch of the OAuthcalypse countdown clock are generally seen as smart moves by Twitter, what remains to be seen is how the users and developers take to the news.

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