Twitter's UberTwitter Takedown: It's Just Business

* February 18, 2011

Twitter's UberTwitter Takedown: It's Just Business
Twitter's UberTwitter sanction marks a troubling turning point in the social network's interaction with partners.
Lance Ulanoff By Lance Ulanoff







There is a certain irony in the fact that Twitter is now aggressively going after third-party sites and services that once helped it spread its name, message, and capabilities virally. What was once a beautiful, symbiotic relationship that appeared to raise the Twitter water level and float all Tweet-powered boats, is now a swirling mass of destruction, with Twitter at the vortex, seemingly eating its own offspring. Today, Twitter suspended UberTwitter and Twidroyd for "violating the company's API policies," and while much of the Twitter community expressed shock, I'm just waiting to see what else the whirlpool sweeps into its path.

I'm not shocked. In fact, this is pretty much what I predicted. Twitter is now doing whatever it can to shut down third-party and competing apps that tend to drag people away from Twitter's desktop and mobile clients. I had assumed that they would continue to do most of this quietly through technology (by tweaking the API). Have you noticed how poorly TweetDeck works on the iPad? The Twitter app, of course, works fine.

Turns out, though, there are other arrows in the Twitter's quiver. One of them is so obvious that I'm surprised I hadn't thought of it before. Twitter can bring out the lawyers.

According to a TechCrunch report, UberMedia's Bill Gross (UberMedia owns UberTwitter and TweetDeck), one of UberTwitter's offenses was its trademark-infringing name. Of course! This is the Apple strategy for brand-management control, and it is smart and extremely effective. In Apple's case, as soon as the iPod took off in the early part of this century, other companies started incorporating "iPod" into their names to try and drive interest to their iPod-related products. Apple quietly went around and reminded folks that while they were flattered, you can't simply use a trademarked name without permission. Go today and try to find something with the "iPod" name in it that isn't owned or explicitly sanctioned by Apple.

So Twitter is being smart, but that new laser-like focus on good business sure does sting. UberTwitter actually has to change its name to UberSocial. Not a big deal, right? Unless you consider that many of Twitter's third party apps got noticed by, well, using the Twitter name.

There are numerous sites and services that use part or all of the Twitter name, including Twittercal, Twittermail and TwitterCounter. I would suggest these and other sites cook up 15 different new names a piece, throw them all in a hat and then start the new name selection process.

What is to stop Twitter from going after services that use part of the company's name? Does anyone think TwitPic is safe? What about TwitVid? There are also tons of services that use "Tweet" in their name. Twitter didn't invent the word, but it could try and claim ownership when it's used to describe part of the Twitter service.

None of this makes Twitter evil. It's just a cool social platform trying to become a profitable business. CEO Dick Costello has yet to unveil his master plan for Twitter financial viability, but we are watching Twitter dip its toe in the water with sponsored Tweets that no one clicks on. Clearly, it needs to do much more. However, Costello can't afford to focus solely on the bottom line. He has to make Twitter the center of all Twitter activity and that means going after third-party eyeball leeches in whatever way he deems necessary.

UberMedia is cleaning up its act, but I doubt it'll be enough to fully protect it from Twitter's efforts to scour the world of Twitter third-party apps. In the end Twitter's vortex will continue to spin, sucking in more and more good services until it's the sole source of Tweet delivery and Twitter-centric features. This could help solidify Twitter's position in the social landscape, or it could completely alienate the users who know and love it today. What do you think will happen? Is Twitter's newly aggressive business strategy a turnoff?

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