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Apple shuts down analytics company Topsy two years after its acquisition

Screen Shot 2015-12-15 at 8.36.20 PMAlmost two years ago to date, Apple acquired a Topsy Labs, an analytics company that made various products that searched and drew data from conversations happening on services like Twitter. Now, Apple has shut down the service according to a tweet from Topsy.

“We’ve searched our last tweet,” Topsy said in a post on Twitter this evening. Going to Topsy’s website now redirects you to an Apple support article on how to use Search on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. The company was tweeting often until November 20th, 2013, after which tweets stopped entirely until today’s final post.

Apple has yet to acknowledge what specifically it used Topsy’s technology and talent for, but there are several instances of improved and deeper search throughout iOS. For instance, iOS 9 introduced new, deeper “Proactive” search that leverages Siri, Contacts, Calendar, Passbook, and third-party apps to create deeper search functionality throughout the operating system.

Apple acquired Topsy Labs in December of 2013 for upwards of $225 million. When the acquisition was originally revealed, many speculated that Apple would use Topsy’s data from social media and integrate it into services like iTunes Radio, so it’s more than likely that some of Topsy’s technology is being used behind the scenes for Apple Music and Beats 1.

[tweet https://twitter.com/Topsy/status/676919759435399168 align=’center’]

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Comments

  1. Ehsan Hamtaei (@eysun) - 8 years ago

    Mac OS’s Spotlight technology has been around for many years. I don’t think Apple needed Topsy to make a deeper search functionality on iOS (at least for the things mentioned in the article: Contacts, Calendar, Passbook, and third-party apps) cause they already have figured a great way to do that on OSX with Spotlight. My guess is they used Topsy for marketing purposes.

  2. kpom1 - 8 years ago

    Perhaps they concluded the benefits weren’t worth the risks.

  3. dcj001 - 8 years ago

    “For instance, iOS 9 introduced new, deeper “Proactive” search that leverages Siri, Contacts, Calendar, Passbook”

    Passbook?

    Do you mean Wallet?

  4. “The company was tweeting often until November 20th”

    That was November 2013. They hadn’t tweeted in over two years.

  5. Brad Burke - 8 years ago

    My theory is they want the Topsy staff to focus on Apple needs now and shut down the parent company. Seems pretty standard for an acquisition. Apple wants analytics on tweets and other social media right? So duh, they are using it for realtime feedback on what they need to fix(bugs) or a PR disaster brewing somewhere on the web. Imagine how handy it would be to have this in your command center.

  6. rnc - 8 years ago

    They don’t need it, IBM already does

  7. I need an alternative to topsy. I used this EVERYDAY and now I’m lost without it

  8. I need a topsy replacement. How can I get a graph with three things, showing which one is trending more and get a list of all trending topics online? I am lost without this.

  9. John J. Peterson - 8 years ago

    Sigh I loved the tool. going to miss it .. glad Gostats is out there to help me with site analytics

Author

Avatar for Chance Miller Chance Miller

Chance is an editor for the entire 9to5 network and covers the latest Apple news for 9to5Mac.

Tips, questions, typos to chance@9to5mac.com