After Domain Squatting, Twitter Squatting

carusoj writes "Squatting on domain names is nothing new, but Twitter has created a new opportunity for squatters, in the form of Twitter IDs. Writes Richard Stiennon: 'Is there evidence of Twitter squatting (squitting?) Let's check. Yup, every single-letter TwitID is taken ... How about common words? Garage, wow, war, warcraft, Crisco, Coke, Pepsi, Nike, and Chevrolet are all taken. My guess is that Twitter squatters have grabbed all of these in the hopes that they will be worth selling in the not too distant future. Of course the legitimate holders of brands can sue for them and Twitter can just turn them over if asked. But, because the investment and risk for the squatter is zero, you are going to see the rapid evaporation of available Twitter IDs.'"

Comments

Can't say I ever used Twitter

[OverlordQ]

So this is pretty much like every other social networking site where you have to pick a username?

Re:Can't say I ever used Twitter

[eln]

It's as if someone said, "You know, I like MySpace, but the blog posts there just aren't inane enough. I wish there was a site where people could quickly and easily share every minute of their boring lives with the world."

Re:Can't say I ever used Twitter

[dintech]

The poster also forgot that not that many people actually care about twitter.

Re:Can't say I ever used Twitter

[rivetgeek]

It's basically livejournal for people with ADD. The worst part is things like loudtwitter which publishes peoples twitter posts on their livejournal.

Re:Can't say I ever used Twitter

[Anonymous Coward]

Why the fuck would I want to use the same UserID on every online service I use?

It's called Single Point of Failure, and it's moronic.

I am a firm believer that openID is only a good idea for people who think they somehow "own" their online "nickname". You know the ones I mean, you see them in every online forum (especially the gaming ones) bitching because someone took the name "Deathbringer" or "DragonKnight" or some other equally generic fantasy nickname, and they are sure that they should be the only ones who can use it.

blech.

Re:Can't say I ever used Twitter

[causality]

There is a protocol to handle this already, and Twitter could've easily used it instead of randomly handing people whatever username came to mind.

To be honest with you, I'm glad that OpenID or something like it has not taken off. I personally like the "chaotic Internet" where one login credential is entirely separate from another and it's up to me to keep track of them. Keeping up with them is a very tiny burden, I do it gladly, and there are plenty of good tools that make it a breeze. To me, the convenience of a system like OpenID is either non-existant or insignificant, while the privacy implications of not only making it easy to profile my browsing but also of doing most of the profiling work myself are severe. I'm sure that the proponents of OpenID have a long list of reasons why I should not worry about privacy implications, but I'm just not buying it. Once personal data is centralized, it has a nasty tendency to stay that way. That kind of accurate, self-managing, neatly profiled data is a marketer's wet dream.

I'm one of those strange people who does things based on principle and a concept of whether this is really the best solution. So, for example, I block trackers like Google-analytics despite any argument or any evidence which demonstrates that it's really rather harmless. Why? Because I never signed any document or made any agreement giving any entity the right to track me and profile me. Personally, I need no other reason to make such tracking as difficult as possible, so I often laugh when I see the subject come up from time to time and I see all of these intricate arguments about what is and is not tracked and why you should or shouldn't worry about it. To me those are needless complications of what is actually a very simple issue. I assume that everyone has the right to privacy and that any entity which tries to reduce a user's privacy (no matter how benign the stated reason may be) without full disclosure and the express consent of that user is acting like an invasive force and that refusing to go along with it is only right and proper. Isn't that so much easier than all of these rationalizations for why we should accept the loss of privacy as though it were some inevitable landmark along the path of human progress? Beware of the motivations of anyone who wants you to believe that; they either have an agenda or a victim mentality and neither one is any good.

So back to OpenID. The advantage: one-stop management of many online accounts. The disadvantage: yet more centralization of private data and an increased ease with which it could be disclosed (intentionally or otherwise). I will be harshly honest -- I think there is something seductive about promises of convenience and reduced effort (especially for things which are already very easy) and I likewise think that there is something cowardly about people who value such promises more than they value their own freedom and privacy. I am not referring to you personally with that sentence, but rather to the large numbers of people who will gladly trade what is priceless in exchange for what has a price and sincerely believe that they have found a bargain.

Re:Can't say I ever used Twitter

[Z00L00K]

And then you can just consider that squatters are rövhål. But who cares about twitter anyway?

Re:Can't say I ever used Twitter

[speculatrix]

some wise person once said: "twitter, for bloggers so mediocre they can't even come up with a full paragraph worth writing".

Who cares?

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, that's really important news. Fuck.

Combatting Multis?

[eldavojohn]

Don't some sites implement an IP log to combat multi-account users? I've seen used extensively in games like Tribal Wars & Ikariam which are just browser based games because the implications are severe. They will ban you. You would think that Twitter would be able to spot accounts being created on the same IP. If the squatter uses an onion router or Tor to start the account, one would think those IP ranges would be easy to spot & block also.

Yes, it is sacrificing a simple hands off policy for a complicated enforced one ... but if you're that worried about that kind of account squatting, why not? Also, this would eliminate people who might be spamming with twitter or using multiple accounts to game twitter. I don't know if those are serious problems but I would be surprised if they weren't.

Re:Combatting Multis?

[Hognoxious]

You would think that Twitter would be able to spot accounts being created on the same IP.

The same person always has the same IP? The same IP always belongs the same person?

Wrong and wrong, but thanks for playing.

Huh?

[MahariBalzitch]

How is this comparable to domain name squatting? Is a Twitter ID really as important as a domain name?

viral marketing

[owlnation]

This is the 3rd piece of viral marketing from the Twitter jerks in as many days.

Twitter jerks, we all know you are desperate. But understand this: your train has sailed. We know you are desperate to be bought out by some large company like Myspace was. It is NOT going to happen for you. The credit crunch makes that certain. Plus your crappy site never stays up more than 24 hours in a row. It's time to give up. Or at least SHUT UP, and stop spamming this site with marketing crap disguised as articles.

Re:viral marketing

[tholomyes]

I came into this thread for the snark, but I stayed for the insight.