>>Illniy+W4
The original idea was to focus a lot on the API part of the site, so that developers can build all kinds of apps around the service, hence the name.
>>Illniy+W4
It wasn't meant to be just a stand alone social network/twitter clone. The idea was to allow developers to build apps on it (even their own twitter clone, why not?) and skip having to build a social graph themselves.