社交媒体交恶，无辜用户遭殃

    如果你在Twitter上的Instagram照片看起来有点问题，要知道这可不是偶然情况，而是被刻意设计的。

    上周初，Instagram的首席执行官凯文•希斯特罗姆在欧洲的技术大会Le Web上当众宣布，将不再为“Twitter卡片”提供支持。Twitter在一篇博客中对此所做的解释是，这主要意味着当用户点击一条带有Instagram链接的微博时，显示的图片将是残缺不全的。而且这些图片最终将在Twitter上完全消失。用户以后只能在Twitter上发图片链接，这些链接会重新导向Instagram的主页。

    希斯特罗姆这么做的理由何在？他向与会者表示：“我们希望引导用户访问内容原始所在地，”并称近期经过大幅改版的Instagram主页能提供更好的用户体验。换言之：Instagram是在有意削弱用户在Twitter上的体验，以便他们能直接访问自己的主页。

    从纯商业角度来说，此举合情合理。不让自己的产品在其他地方出现，这样，自己的忠实用户——Instagram的忠实用户已超过1亿人——就可能链接到产品的源头，在本文中这就是Instagram的主页。Instagram早已推出过数次引发争议的举动，此次与“Twitter卡片”分道扬镳绝谈不上是头一桩，而只能算是其中之一。不过，考虑到这两家公司的关系，这并不意味着这一举措不让人诧异：Twitter联合创始人杰克•多尔西看好Instagram，还是它的早期投资人；并且，平心而论，Instagram初期之所以能快速增长，部分要归功于它让用户能在Twitter上轻松分享经数码过滤的照片的功能。

    今年年初，两家公司的关系开始变得不太和谐。当时有报道称（而且事实的确如此），Twitter有意收购Instagram。然而就在四月，Facebook公司捷足先登，以近10亿美元的报价收购了Instagram，成为一桩里程碑式的交易。三个月后，Twitter就停掉了Instagram的“找朋友”（Find Friends）功能。现在，据《纽约时报》（The New York Times）报道，Twitter正在开发自己的照片过滤和分享功能，可能会与Instagram展开直接竞争。

    尽管希斯特罗姆曾表示此举并非有意“报复”，但人们很难不这么想。与此同时，由于Instagram的新东家近几个月来明显大幅增强了其网上和移动设备上的照片功能，Twitter展开自卫反击行动也就在情理之中了。

    If your Instagram photos look wonky on Twitter, remember that's not by accident. It's by design.

    Earlier this week, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom announced onstage at Europe's tech conference Le Web that the popular photo-sharing start-up was killing support for "Twitter cards." As Twitter explained in a post, this basically means when users click Tweets with an Instagram link, photos will show up cropped and incomplete. Eventually, those photos disappear from Twitter altogether. Users will only be able to post photo links to the social network that reroute to Instagram.com.

    Systrom's reasoning? "We want to direct users to where the content lives originally," he told the conference audience, claiming that the recently revamped Instagram.com, now with web profiles, provides a better user experience. In other words: Instagram is purposefully handicapping the Instagram experience on Twitter so users will go to its own website.

    From a purely business perspective, the move make sense. Amputate your product found elsewhere, and loyal users -- of which Instagram has over 100 million -- will be likely to go to the source, in this case, Instagram.com. And pulling Twitter card integration is hardly the first contentious move Instagram has made. It's actually one of several. That doesn't mean it is not surprising, given the ties the two had: Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey was an early investor and advocate, and it's fair to say Instagram owes some of its early, rapid growth to features enabling users to easily share those digitally filtered snapshots on Twitter itself.

    Earlier this year, the relationship soured. Instagram, which was reportedly (and seriously) being courted by Twitter for acquisition, got snapped up by Facebook (FB) last April in a landmark deal then valued at nearly $1 billion. Three months later, Twitter effectively disabled Instagram's "Find Friends" feature that let users find one another. Now, as The New York Times reports, Twitter is developing its own photo-filter and sharing feature, one that would arguably compete directly with Instagram itself.

    Although Systrom has said the move is not intended as a form of "retribution," it's hard not to view it as anything but. Meanwhile, Twitter's own aggressive behavior is understandable given Instagram's new owner, which in recent months, has made visible strides to beef up its own photo features online and on mobile.