Rate Limits Continue To Die: Twitter Opens Site Streams Beta
According to the Site Streams dev site, developers won’t be able to fully abandon the REST API yet, as Site Streams will be prone to disruption as Twitter works out the kinks. The feature will also only be limited to “a total of 100,000 simultaneous users during the beta period unless prior arrangements are made”, though it’s hard to think of any sites that large who don’t already have a relationship with Twitter.
Developers will have to apply for access to the beta, which can be found at the bottom of the developer site. And if you’re itching to try real-time streams for yourself, a handful of desktop clients including Seesmic, Echofon, and TweetDeck support them already.