Apple shuts down Topsy two years after acquisition, forwards webpage to iOS 9 search support

Posted:
in General Discussion edited December 2015
Tuesday marked an end of services for social media analytics firm Topsy Labs, a Twitter data specialist that was purchased by Apple in 2013 for more than $200 million.




Topsy fittingly made the announcement on its official Twitter page, saying, "We've searched our last tweet." The company's website is no longer active and now forwards to an Apple Support Document explaining iOS 9 search capabilities, including new features like proactive Siri Suggestions.

Apple purchased Topsy in 2013 as part of a deal reportedly worth more than $200 million. The Cupertino, Calif., company declined to reveal plans for the analytics firm's technology, or hired talent, but it was speculated at the time that Topsy's access to Twitter's data "firehose" would be a benefit to everything from iAds to iTunes to Siri.

Prior to today's shutdown, Topsy provided aggregation and high-level analysis of tweets and other Twitter data to break down market trends in real time. For example, by tapping key Twitter metrics like engagement, influencers and user sentiment, Topsy was able to measure an ad campaign's effectiveness. Of particular interest to Apple was the firm's standing as one of four "certified data resellers" with exclusive rights to collect and resell Twitter data.

Beyond Twitter, Topsy's technology might be powering certain backend features in iOS 9 like intelligent Siri Suggestions. The new search function integrates geolocation data with data providers such as Yelp! to surface nearby places of interest.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 1
    I believe that Topsy had exclusive access to "All Tweets" since the beginning, so Apple bought them.
    I think IBM Watson Analytics now has access to All Tweets as well.  A good way to keep up with trends.
    I think Apple integrates Bing, Wolfram Alpha, Wikipedia, Yelp, Topsy amongst others to for a powerful search knowledge base.
    mike1
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