Twitter blocks Instagram from friend search function

Microblogging platform solidifies its position as content hub

Twitter has prevented Instagram from linking its friend search back to Twitter, by altering its API to stop users of Instagram finding other Twitter users on the service.

It's another decisive step in Twitter's plan to more strongly establish itself as an internet content hub in its own right, as expanded Tweets have gradually started to integrate external content, such as YouTube videos, into Twitter's website and UI, as opposed to linking out to the relevant website in each instance.

Twitter provided TheNextWeb with a statement reading: "We understand that there's great value associated with Twitter's follow graph data, and we can confirm that it is no longer available within Instagram."

The move is the second major ring fencing action from Twitter since its announcement via a blog back on 29 June that the company would start to "build engaging experiences into Twitter". Stating that Twitter was looking to "highlight the increasing importance of providing the core experience through a consistent set of products and tools," Twitter removed an interface with LinkedIn on the same day, preventing tweets appearing next to users' profiles on the business social networking site.

With testing financial times for many business models, it makes sense for Twitter to attempt to feather its own nest. As Facebook posted considerable financial hits yesterday, following a less than successful IPO, and even Amazon's profits dropping by 96 per cent in the past year, Twitter can be forgiven for becoming less inclined to allow startups, or other internet giants, to capitalise on its successes.

There is one slice of encouraging news in Q2 results, however, and that's for AOL, which has swung back into profitability for this quarter. Sealing a deal back in June that saw it sell $1.1bn (£698.2bn) worth of patents to Microsoft, the company has posted income of $970.8m (£616.2m) – its lowest rate of revenue decline for seven years.