geoAPI
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
GeoAPI was a location-aware application platform built by Mixer Labs, a California startup founded in 2008 by former Google employees including Othman Laraki. It gave developers 'a writable layer to annotate the world', with complex geo-queries and location-enabled media layers, letting apps attach current location to user activity. On December 23, 2009 Twitter acquired Mixer Labs to form the foundation of its geolocation services, integrating the GeoAPI team's work into the Twitter API.
02 / geoAPI FAILURE REASONS
Failure factors
after Twitter bought Mixer Labs (GeoAPI), Twitter shut the standalone GeoAPI to outside developers because maintaining it was too much of a hassle and core functionality had already been migrated into the Twitter API; Twitter said GeoAPI would be turned off on 31 Mar 2011 while still using geo features internally.
Twitter said GeoAPI.com core endpoints had already been migrated to the Twitter API and would be turned off for external developers.
a developer source that Twitter found maintaining the separate GeoAPI too much of a hassle.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Founding
Mixer Labs was founded by former Google employees including Othman Laraki, building location-tracking tools and the GeoAPI developer platform.
- Acquisition
Twitter acquired Mixer Labs on December 23, 2009 to form the foundation of its geolocation services; the GeoAPI team joined Twitter to integrate location into the Twitter API.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
In 2008 former Google employees including Othman Laraki founded Mixer Labs in California, building location-tracking tools and the GeoAPI developer platform.
- 02
GeoAPI gave developers a writable layer for geo-queries and location-enabled media, letting apps attach current location to activity.
- 03
On December 23, 2009 Twitter acquired Mixer Labs, with the GeoAPI team joining Twitter to build its geolocation services.
- 04
The source record labels the company as shutdown in 2011; sources show an acquisition by Twitter in 2009 instead. The record value is kept as-is and the conflict is flagged; no loss amount is recorded.