Birds of a feather flock together.
I recently came across an article that listed the “99 Essential Twitter Tools and Applications.” Normally, I try to stay away from posts of this nature, but I was compelled by the title.
I figured it would be easy to get a quick percentage, if I included Twitter itself in the mix, of how many of these tools and apps be some hack on the word “twitter,” “tweet” or the “tw-” prefix?
In a largely un-scientific study, 89 of the 100 sites listed appropriated variations on the Twitter name (again, I included Twitter themselves in the mix—maybe unfair, but it makes for a nicer looking graphic).
In bringing this discovery up publicly, I want to caution the creators of Twitter apps on relying on the Twitter brand name so heavily when it comes to naming their products (for more than just legal reasons). The micro-blogging service has made it really easy for developers to tap into their API and create some amazing products as a result and leverage the ever-growing number of users that the service has seen.
We all know Twitter isn’t going anywhere. If you’re trying to create a micro-product that leverages the connections people have accumulated on their Twitter social graph or the messaging aspects of the service, you are not going to stand out from the crowd. The very fact that Smashing Magazine could even aggregate 99 sub-services for an article should be a testament to how many offerings are already out there—and Twitter is only three years old this month.
It may seem easy and cutesy to try and create a product that leverages the Twitter name, but spend as much time thinking about the name as you think about your databases and your monetization strategy. I guarantee you will stand out and you’ll have a brand name that is more scalable in the long run.
Just to disclose, I am the designer behind Friend Or Follow, a site featured in the Smashing Magazine article linked above—and Dusty Reagan was the one who came up with the name. Stay tuned to my articles by subscribing to the RSS feed in your favorite RSS reader or by following me on Twitter.
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This was really helpful! I had this hunch some time ago, but lacked the data to back it. Keen observation man!
Good point.
Twitter doesn’t seem to mind (at least not yet) based on their new dictionary-style links to other apps carrying these types of names (they’ve linked to Tweetie, et al.).
But, I do agree that sites that do not have the “tw” prefix do stand out a bit more when vying for visibility when surrounded by similar services.
And not only do you stand out when your name doesn’t start with “tw” – it’s often a heckuva lot clearer about what your product it is, ex:. the name “twhirl” doesn’t give a lot of hints about what it is…