A show of hands: how many of you use Twitter from Twhirl, Twitterrific, or the several other Twittified applications? Okay, how many login to twitter.com and use the Website? Not as many.

In recognition of that reality, Twitter has promoted Alex Payne to “API Lead.” When you strip away the cryptic mumbo-jumbo, Payne will be assisting in developing even more ways for people to use Twitter.

Just how important API development is to Twitter was also pointed out by Jack Dorsey, CEO of the micro-blogging platform. Dorsey said connections via applications are 20 times larger than those to the company Website, according to VentureBeat.

To help, Twitter engineer Matt Sanford will assist Payne. Sanford is late of Summize, the company Twitter bought and turned into Twitter Search.

(Photo credit: Lou Springer)