Twitter recently changed its rules regarding the use of its APIs, setting a rate limit for accessing the main Twitter page. They have restricted the amount that one can access the service to a set rate, hoping to prevent apps from pinging Twitter once every couple of seconds.
Although the social networking giant has a vast network of computers, if you consider the effect of millions of users pinging their servers frequently while looking for updates, they can’t be blamed for the new rules. If the limit is met, you’ll see a “Sorry! You’ve hit your hourly usage limit! Try again soon” message.
If a user, app or bot hits the limit, nothing will happen–that is, nothing at all will happen on the throughout the site. Twitter puts the user or app into a time-out which lasts 10 minutes. Then the access restriction is lifted until the next over-limit occurance.
