# Twitter API is Not Just for Developers

**Author:** kinlane  
**Canonical:** https://apievangelist.com/2011/04/11/twitter-api-is-not-just-for-developers/

kinlane-productions2.s3.amazonaws.com ![](https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/Twitter-Logo.jpg)I keep stumbling across innovative approaches to using Web APIs, for non-developers.

The other day I wrote about [quantifying your social media impact,](http://apievangelist.com/2011/04/09/apis-are-not-just-for-developers/ "Quantifying your social media impact, using Google Docs and social media") using Google Docs and social media APIs, by[Tom Critchlow](http://www.seomoz.org/users/profile/30546 "Tom Critchlow").

Tonight I came across a example of [archiving your daily tweets](http://blogofmu.com/2011/04/05/bring-twitter-api-data-in-google-docs-to-quickly-viewmanipulate/ "archiving your daily tweets into a Google spreadsheet and the Twitter API") into a Google spreadsheet using the Twitter API.

[Richard Orelup](http://twitter.com/#!/ripsup "Richard Orelup") came up with this little hack in response to this tweet:

> _So in all of Twitter-dom, there is seriously no tool that archives a day's tweets in a sortable fashion?_

Using the [importXML() function](http://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=75507 "importXML() function") he pulls Twitter updates from the [Twitter API](http://dev.twitter.com/ "Twitter API") and stores in this [Google Spreadsheet](https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AncshzELR0ZHdDdoSWJKc0JtWjBYT0NpX0V6dlhzUUE&hl=en&authkey=CJr2ztYJ#gid=0 "Google Spreadsheet").

The [spreadsheet template](https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AncshzELR0ZHdDdoSWJKc0JtWjBYT0NpX0V6dlhzUUE&hl=en&authkey=CJr2ztYJ#gid=0 "spreadsheet template") is pretty straightforward to use. Just make copy, and update the twitter user value.

Very cool [example of the power of APIs](http://blogofmu.com/2011/04/05/bring-twitter-api-data-in-google-docs-to-quickly-viewmanipulate/ "example of the power of APIs"), and how important it is that we deliver simple, RESTful interfaces that developers and non-developers can use in every day business.
