First there were silos; you had to be on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn separately.

Then they crosslinked, first using password-sharing – the antipattern – then OpenID, and the user could post an update in one and all would see it.

Now: belts are tightening, the walls are going back up. Remember you are the product – you are what they monetise, they have to keep control of you, shepherd you, lock you in… just as new players like Pinterest are coming into the market, and Google+ still flounders without much (anything?) in terms of a posting API.

They are all betting on smartphone apps to provide the richness of experience that will mean users forego linkage.

I think they’re wrong because users still want a unified point of control; that was the point of the old Tweetdeck – Twitter had to buy it for a bunch of reasons, but that it provided a single interface to several social networking sites was intolerable in the long term.

My response: hub-and-spoke macroblogging using WordPress; I’ll go looking for a post-to-LinkedIn plugin for WordPress and then resume business as usual.

The rest of the world: I suspect in a few months we will see a few new GUCs – Grand Unified Clients – like the old Tweetdeck.

Eventually: the user will start doing it for themselves from their mobiles – which will be very interesting indeed.

Hi Alec,

LinkedIn and Twitter have worked together since 2009 to enable you to share your professional conversations on both platforms. Twitter recently evolved its strategy and this will result in a change to the way Tweets appear in third-party applications. Starting today Tweets will no longer be displayed on LinkedIn.

We know that sharing updates from LinkedIn to Twitter is a valuable service for our members. Moving forward, you will still be able to share updates with your Twitter audience by posting them on LinkedIn.

How can I continue to share updates on both LinkedIn and Twitter?
Simply start your conversation on LinkedIn. Compose your update, check the box with the Twitter icon, and click “Share.” This will automatically push your update to both your LinkedIn connections and your Twitter followers just as before.

What changes can I expect to see on LinkedIn?
Any conversation you start on Twitter will no longer be automatically shared with your LinkedIn network, even if you synced your LinkedIn and Twitter accounts.

If you would like more information about what this means for your synced LinkedIn and Twitter accounts, please visit our related Help Center topics.

Thank you,
The LinkedIn Team