Twitter Usernames Are Like Domains in 1995

TwitterI posted an article on TechCrunch last night after I requested the Twitter dev team to open their API and expose “direct messages”. (Note: Some others had requested similar functionality from Twitter). I saw the potential of “direct messages” essentially becoming commands, so that applications could be built off the Twitter back-end — allowing users to send private commands to specific keywords (er, Twitter usernames) and those usernames processing a command via the API, and sending requested information back to the user.

This really opens Twitter up and there’s going to be a lot of applications built off the Twitter back-end (although I agree with one commenter: it’d be nice to know officially from Twitter whether they’ll ever plan to charge an application provider that builds off their platform).

Nik Cubrilovic just opened the can of worms regarding Twitter username squatting. I had lingo referring to this in the TechCrunch article, but I think Mike wanted to keep the post focused.

Twitter usernames are one-of-a-kind — and I kind of feel like this is 1995 and someone just told me, “Hey, you know, domains are one-of-a-kind — they’re going to worth money someday; people will be selling them to each other. In particular, the generic domains are going to be worth a lot.”

I’m patiently waiting to see who makes the first Twitter username sale. Will there be a “Twitter username after-market” someday? We’ll see.

Finally, Nik feels that Twitter missed out on an opportunity by not reserving these generic keywords ahead of time — I agree, but strongly disagree. I think the Twitter team is focused on building a great service — and a great back-end. I think they want people to build applications off of it and make it more apart of people’s lives. If you build an app off it, then people depend on using Twitter. Just like Evan’s Blogger.com (which he sold to Google) — he focused on building a great app, he didn’t worry about reserving the generic subdomains for ‘blogspot.com’ (Blogger’s domain for hosting).

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  • Bob

    Funny, I spent some time doing this yesterday… I got the twitter name “football”. “baseball” was available yesterday, but is gone today.

  • http://scripting.wordpress.com/2007/03/27/scripting-news-for-3272007/ Scripting News for 3/27/2007 « Scripting News Annex

    [...] Cubrilovic and Steve Poland on Twitter keyword [...]

  • http://wordpressguy.com Wordpress Guy

    Yay – I just got referred to on Techquila – I’ll be a legend in the office tomorrow!
    You should start a book on which will be the first twitter username to be sold. My bet would be on “pizza”.

  • http://www.mobilemarketing.net Greg Harris

    The difference between Twitter and domain names is that I am sure Twitter has in their terms of service that they can take back a keyword at any time.

    Our company, Mobivity, also does keywords on a shared short code, and unlike domain names, keywords are the property of the company. If someone offers us more money for a premium keyword, we can take it away. We’d only do that in extreme circumstances, but we wuold be able to at any time.

    Other services like Mozes and Textmarks also have similar terms of service.

  • http://soylentfoo.jnewland.com/ Jesse Newland

    One critical flaw in the direct-messages-as-web-services idea – twitter currently only allows a user to send direct messages to other users who have added you as a friend. Therefore, the weather bot, and all other such command-bots, will have to selectively choose who they can expose their interface to, and add all of these people as friends before this will work.

  • http://oscandy.com azzam

    Well, I took the username ‘opportunity’ just now :)

  • http://kosso.wordpress.com Kosso

    Hi. Glad others are on this track too. I blogged about @username services and username ‘squitting’ last week
    http://kosso.wordpress.com/2007/03/14/more-twittering/

    then built the proof of concept at http://twitter.com/dictionary

    I also have /question and /answer :)

  • http://kosso.wordpress.com/2007/03/28/os-twitter-and-services/ OS Twitter and Services « kosso’s braingarden

    [...] think it’s great and all that people like Nik, Steve and Dave are looking at this too. Let them pick up the ball and run with it. (Ermm. Did I drop it? [...]

  • http://www.freetube.us.tc Pointless to Say

    I disagree, this is a web service not an actual global platform. What I mean is that you don’t see email addresses being sold currently (perhaps when it was in beta because of limited supply, and curiosity) but in terms of usernames being sold from Twitter it won’t happen. Or it won’t happen in the way it happened for domains. Twitter could go bellyup tomorrow, or perhaps people lose interest. I don’t see YouTube or MySpace accounts getting sold [yet], so don’t count on Twitter (which is fairly new) to start being a hot commodity.

  • http://www.thejshow.com Jeremy Kandah

    I think that they have the ability to fix this problem (assuming this is a problem) by doing what email does. In your email account you have an alias that you send along with emails, and depending on your email client that is what you see instead of the email address.

    I feel that this can be implemented, but leads to twitter phishing. Is that possible?

  • http://mutednoise.com/?p=2245 mutednoise » Yet Another ‘Internet Command Line’

    [...] Steve Poland, author of Techquila Shots and contributing writer for TechCrunch has a series of posts about the possibilities, which subsequently got lots of other ideas [...]

  • http://blog.blendah.com Blendah Tom

    Twitter says I can’t squat on Twitter domains .. they are taking away twitter.com/gamespot :(

  • http://www.blogthot.com Jon/Blogthot.com

    While companies like Twitter can’t support squatting on usernames that are trademarks, I fully expect squatting on Twitter, Jaiku, Blog Thot, etc. The only question is how long it will be before they start getting sold.

  • http://blog.stevepoland.com/evan-twitter-needs-a-better-policy-on-usernames/ » Evan – Twitter needs a better policy on Usernames – By Steve Poland – Ideas for Making Money Online

    [...] up in March 2007. I’d consider them some of the “quality” ones. Almost like the domain game of 1995, I grabbed some of the best Twitter usernames, because I could see value in their use in the [...]

  • http://fizwho.com/social-media-user-names-becoming-more-like-domain-names/ FizWho » Social Media User Names Becoming More Like Domain Names

    [...] the spring of 2007, Steve Poland wrote the article “Twitter Usernames Are Like Domains in 1995″. As the popularity of the microblogging service grows, more and more evidence of [...]

  • http://freehostss.com/the-top-100-global-brands-still-don%e2%80%99t-get-online-media/ The Top 100 Global Brands Still Don’t Get Online Media

    [...] messages and users per month, Twitter seems like a safe bet to use for your brand. If this is truly comparable to domain names, now might be the time for executives at some of these top 100 brands to wake up. Twitter might [...]

  • http://domainameshome.com/?p=740 Social Media User Names Becoming More Like Domain Names | The domain industry’s news source

    [...] the spring of 2007, Steve Poland wrote the article “Twitter Usernames Are Like Domains in 1995″. As the popularity of the microblogging service grows, more and more evidence of [...]

  • http://domainameshome.com/?p=741 The Top 100 Global Brands Still Don’t Get Online Media | The domain industry’s news source

    [...] messages and users per month, Twitter seems like a safe bet to use for your brand. If this is truly comparable to domain names, now might be the time for executives at some of these top 100 brands to wake up. Twitter might [...]

  • http://fizwho.com/the-top-100-global-brands-still-don%e2%80%99t-get-online-media/ FizWho » The Top 100 Global Brands Still Don’t Get Online Media

    [...] messages and users per month, Twitter seems like a safe bet to use for your brand. If this is truly comparable to domain names, now might be the time for executives at some of these top 100 brands to wake up. Twitter might [...]

  • http://esperimentotre.wordpress.com/2008/12/29/twitter-e-identita-digitale-nei-social-network/ Twitter e identità digitale nei social network « esperimento tre

    [...] anno fa Steve Poland fa incetta di account Twitter con l’intento dichiarato di rivenderli quando avranno acquisito valore. Uultimamente, però, [...]

  • http://domainameshome.com/?p=756 Social Media User Names Becoming More Like Domain Names | The domain industry’s news source

    [...] the spring of 2007, Steve Poland wrote the article “Twitter Usernames Are Like Domains in 1995″. As the popularity of the microblogging service grows, more and more evidence of [...]

  • http://freehostss.com/the-top-100-global-brands-still-don%e2%80%99t-get-online-media-2/ The Top 100 Global Brands Still Don’t Get Online Media

    [...] messages and users per month, Twitter seems like a safe bet to use for your brand. If this is truly comparable to domain names, now might be the time for executives at some of these top 100 brands to wake up. Twitter might [...]

  • http://www.piscomall.com Pisco

    The future of twitter is bigger that many ppl thought 2 or 3 years ago.
    I have signed up recently at twitter and its a pretty cool service.

  • http://blog.kmkmedia.com/2008/05/16/brand-squatting/ Brand Squatting « KMK Media Group

    [...] don’t hear about brand squatting much, although there was a blog post last year comparing twittersquatting to the domain name rush of the 1990s. Why is it important to [...]

  • http://www.watchingwebsites.com/archives/registering-your-username-on-many-social-media-sites-pros-and-cons watching websites » registering your username on many social media sites: the pros and cons

    [...] Some say that the username is the new domain name.  Registering early on ensures that you get ‘first dibs’ on a username that you may find desirable.  This will, in turn, help you with SEO, since your profiles should all point to the same websites.  Throughout the process, you’ll find that it will force you to ask an important question: “how should I represent myself on the Internet”.  You’ll end up using a password manager, which can only help you from a security standpoint.  Finally, you’re likely to find a treasure trove of apps that you can’t live without.  Oh, and if you happen to be an entrepreneur/designer/passionate about building web applications, then going through many registrations will inspire you to create or tweak your own. [...]

  • http://www.deadlywind.com/ Paintball Barrel

    and years later, I’m still not seeing twitter names be sold?