PC World posted an article about a new trend, Twitter Squatting, comparing it to early domain name registrations.

“””””Think back for a moment to the early days of the Internet when domain name registrations were free. Imagine how rich you would be if you had thought to reserve “internet.com”, “business.com”, or any two or three letter domain name for that matter.   Domain name investment is a mature industry now with every word in the English dictionary long since reserved by some entrepreneur/squatter.””””

“”””Now Twitter has created a new supply of valuable “names”: Twitter IDs.  Have you signed up for your free Twitter ID? Do you own your surname? Company name? Brand identity?””””

“””””Is there evidence of Twitter squatting.  Let’s check. Yup, every single-letter Twitter ID is taken.

How about common words? Garage, wow, war, warcraft, Crisco, Coke, Pepsi, Nike, and Chevrolet are all taken.

“”””My guess is that Twitter squatters have grabbed all of these in the hopes that they will be worth selling in the not too distant future. Of course the legitimate holders of brands can sue for them and Twitter can just turn them over if asked. But, because the investment and risk for the squatter is zero, you are going to see the rapid evaporation of available Twitter IDs.””””

PC World then advises everyone to go to Twitter and reserve all names associated with your brand if available.

Interesting how they call people squatters and then tell them to go out and do it.

Guess only those holding a name you want is a squatter ,but if you get someone else’s name, well that’s just cool.