Cybersquatting 2.0 - Secure your Twitter URL... NOW!
Some of you may have heard of a little social medial startup called Twitter.
I say little facetiously as Twitter is growing explosively... over 1000% during the last 12 months with no sign of slowing down.
SOURCE: Techcrunch 'Whoa Twitter Mania'.
Twitter is easily the hottest site/platform around and will likely disrupt the order of things within social media... maybe even within the broader internet (check out http://search.twitter.com to see what I mean.)
Over the past few months I have been using Twitter more and more to the point where (and I should say a lot of people are moving this way too) I am using Twitter more than LinkedIn and Facebook. My usage of those 2 sites has dropped to less than 20% of where it was as little as a few months ago.
Twitter has become an important way for me to communicate with friends, family and business colleagues. Over time, I'm predicting Twitter will be seen as a vital communications tool in its own right in much the same way as we now view the mobile phone, SMS and email.
Twitter has become so popular that like domain names before it, people are 'finding' Twitter profiles by typing in what they think they will be directly as a URL, as opposed to searching for them.
For example, if you were looking for Twitters page for me, Whodeani, you could simply type in http://www.twitter.com/whodeani. If you were looking for Yahoo, you could type in http://www.twitter.com/yahoo and so on.
Unfortunately, a lot like the domain name landrush of the late 90's, many people are 'already' seeing their brand names or actual names being taken up by the Twitter equivalent of Cybersquatting. There has in fact been a steady increase in disputes over whom has the rights over a Twitter URL. Is it Twitter, the official brand holder, name holder or someone else entirely speaking about the brand/person in question.
Unlike the domain name disputes so prevalent of the late 90's, early 00's, the disputes thus far with Twitter URL's have usually been settled amicably, privately and with Twitter having the final say. As Twitter continues to gain in popularity, the number of disputes will increase, they will become far more public and more than likely these disputes will spill over into the courts.
If history has taught us anything from the domain name disputes of the past it is that it is far easier to secure a name 'early' (that is legally and rightfully yours) than to have to fight to have it returned at some later date.
So whats the point...?
The point is this, even if you are unsure as to wether or not you will be using Twitter in the future, you should secure your personal name, business name and/or brand(s) as a Twitter URL 'now' to ensure that if you do decide to use the service, you have a Twitter URL that is easy to remember and clearly associated with you.
To see if your name is available simply type it in as follows... twitter.com/yourname
If its available... it will return 'This page doesn't exist' (as below).
Simply then click on Twitter's 'Home' link, join the service and secure your own unique Twitter URL.
Its free so why not...?
