Twitter – Will Spammers Ruin It In the Future?

I think everyone knows that Twitter is. If you have never heard of Twitter, then i must ask what rock have you been living under? Twitter has become one of the most popular social networking and micro blogging platforms ever. What makes services like Twitter so versatile is its use of standard text messaging on your cell phone. By using your phone, you can carry on conversations with friends, and give status updates to those who follow you.

Twitter was originally designed for the purpose of answering one basic question: “What are you doing“. When answering this basic question, you can keep in contact with friends and business associates. The service allows you to create a profile, and you can even put a link to your web page or blog on your home. In essence, you use the service to promote your site or blog. The question I ask though is this. Is Twitter being ruined?

If you have a account with the micro blogging service, then I am sure you have noticed a few tweets that have URLs in them. Usually, these URLs are short and look funny. These URLs come from various URL shortening services. This is done to make the URL easier to remember, but it is also an avenue for spammers.

In the last few months, i have noticed an increase in the amount of tweets with URLs in them. A lot of these tweets with URLs are of the kind I would label as spam. I did not not know that Twitter allowed URLs in tweets, and to be honest with you, its a downright dreadful and dangerous practice on the part of the service. The service has gained news attention in the past for URLs tweeted leading to malware and exploits.

The malware and exploits however is only part of the problem. The service is under fire in my opinion, and if something isn’t done, there is a great chance Twitter will be ruined, and it will end up in the dumps known as Myspace that is filled with garbage. The service should NOT allow any URLs in tweets period. None, Zip, zilch, Nada. now before anyone says “well how can I promote my blog?” or “How can i tell people about my new product?” Answer is simple, “tweet about your product, but don’t tweet the URL” It really is that simple.

In my opinion, Twitter is in desperate need to change its policies, and it needs to change them soon before it is too late. If someone tweets a URL, then the Service needs to strip the link tag out. In otherwords, don’t make the links clickable. Its like this. Tweets should be centered around talking about your product, blog post, web site, etc and refering the user to check out your Twitter profile that has the link to your site. This would allow Twitter to stop the spamming all together by cutting off the most obvious avenue for it.The service should follow the following model.

1. No click able URLs in tweets.

2. Tweets about products should be centered about talking about your product, web page, blog etc.

3. Refer the user to your Twitter profile for more information where a link of your choice exists.

If the changes I have suggested are not made, in 2 years max spam marketers and such will ruin Twitter. The service will simply not be worth using at all. The service was never designed for this type of use, and its going to end up ruining a great service. In today’s world, it seems nearly impossible to stop robots. It just too much for a IT staff to fight vs how much time the bad guys got. This is why another approach needs to be taken by cutting off the obvious avenues for abuse. Tweeting URLs is the the most obvious vector for attacks and spam on the service.

If something is not done about this, and soon the service will be ruined. i have seen many great services go down the drain in recent years. I don’t want to see this happen to such a great service like Twitter. I am pleading with the Twitter staff, please ban people from tweeting URLs its in the best interests of the service. I hate spam! If marketers want to tweet URLs, then make them pay a monthly fee for that service. I think charging a monthly fee to tweet URLs would be a great model, leaving everyone else on a free service. I say leave the service exactly how it is now with the exception to tweet click-able URLs is a small fee a month. I think that would do tons to preserve the service. Good day.