Topsy, the Internet’s favorite social media analysis tool, has died at 8

Topsy’s death comes two years after Apple purchased it for a reported $200 million, and subsequently remained tight-lipped about plans for it. Apple has never publicly revealed why it bought Topsy Labs, but it’s likely the technology was used to overhaul the iOS 9’s “Proactive” tool, which searches a user’s apps for information. It’s also speculated that Apple is using Topsy’s tech to overhaul iAds, its ad network for Apple software.

In its short existence, Topsy garnered a devoted following for indexing every tweet ever published, organizing popular ones and finding how many times a hashtag was used — all for free. It’s what Twitter’s search function should be, but isn’t.

Fans offered their condolences for the 8-year-old service on Twitter:

@Topsy Genuinely sad. really great service.

— Shiv Malik (@shivmalik) December 16, 2015

@Topsy so long good friend! #heartbreak

— Jenna Goldman (@jmgoldman17) December 16, 2015

@Topsy gone but not forgotten

— Jeff Eckenhoff (@jeckenhoff) December 16, 2015

@Topsy RIP I will miss you!

— kimballscott (@kimballscott) December 16, 2015

Free alternatives to Topsy are hard to come by. Competitors are scrambling to appeal to Topsy’s mourners. This morning, NewsWhip published a post promoting its tool, Spike, but it costs $299 a month. Buzzsumo, another service, charges $99 a month and there’s Unmetric, the most expensive, at $490 a month. 

You were too good for this world, Topsy.

Image via Shutterstock.