“Facebook may play host to nearly a billion users, but Twitter controls the social ecosystem today.” So writes Senior Analyst Zach Hofer-Shall in a new blog post regarding Twitter’s “Certified Products Program” and the introduction of a literal seal of approval for select third-party Twitter developers.

“Twitter is finally putting a stake in the ground and letting third-party developers know who’s in charge. Over the past few years, Twitter has grown into the successful social network it is in great part because of its third-party developers. The apps we use — both for personal use on our varied devices as well as the data-driven technologies we use for business — helped make Twitter popular. But now that it’s become one of the social kings, it’s starting to lay down the law,” writes Hofer-Shall. “By forcing vendors to abide by Twitter’s laws, it will standardize the usage of Twitter data and drive innovation around possible analyses. Instead of vendors competing about their “exclusive” Twitter tools, they can spend time building more functional analytics systems around the Tweets. Social media is in dire need of standards — perhaps standardizing data usage will lead to progress on this front (at least for Twitter).” Read more in the blog post.