Twitter handles are quickly becoming as desirable as domains and Tweexchange hopes to capitalize on this by providing a marketplace for Twitter members to exchange, buy or find Twitter usernames from other existing members. Tweexchange also lets you easily find what Twitter handles have been taken and recommends alternate usernames for your desired Twitter handle.
It’s actually a useful service when trying to find what Twitter names are available. The site also lists Twitter handles for sale, which could be a lucrative business if the handles listed for sale are actually desirable. Currently, the only handle listed that could be of value is “HowardJohnsons,” which is on sale for $750.00. If you do see a Twitter name available that you’d like to buy or negotiate, Tweexchange lets you send the owner a Tweet or email inquiry.
Selling “free” Twitter names is apparently ‘against Twitter rules’, but it’s unclear as to how and if Twitter is enforcing this rule.
“Twitter Squatting” is become a popular phenomenon. People are taking up brand names, company names and famous individuals’ names as user names in the hopes of cashing in big one day, like many who bought popular domain names have in the past. Most recently, CNN and James Cox, the original owner of CNNbrk (CNN’s breaking news Twitter account) created a deal for Cox to act as a consultant as the network “acquired” the Twitter name. The news that CNN didn’t own the actual CNN Twitter handle emerged during CNN’s competition with Ashton Kutcher to see who reached 1 million followers first. CNN didn’t disclose how much the network is paying Cox for the consulting gig.
TWITTERCRUNCH!!!!!!
I guess TC will write about twitter till the year 2050.
Ha ha .. that’s right. TechCrunch is all about Twitter. But I believe tweeexchange might take off. It’s becoming like a domain name real-estate business. Getting in to my fav list of Twitter apps. Here’s my fav list:
a) BoilingPage ( http://www.boilingpage.com ) – It shows the hottest pages on the web based on how popular they are in Twitter.
b) twitterberry – Tweeting from the blackberry
c) Tweeexchange
HA mumbo jumbo SPAMMER!
Talks about 3 similar services only links to one = MumBo Jumbo spammer!
Look a cool service and will surely try it. :-/
http://www.smartbloggerz.com
It has become quite sickening. You can’t tell me there are not enough new start-ups to write about.
I started going to cnet first in the morning again because it’s getting quite clear that TC, while armed with very good writers, wastes such talents reporting on only a group of things:
Twitter, Twitter apps, Facebook, MySpace, Google, Apple, Microsoft.
Oh, and any startups that contain executives from any of the above companies.
Another crappy app, every name I tried said it was available (even mine, http://twitter.com/coupld is, apparently, and so is @aplusk, Ashton Kutcher’s)
Why doesn’t this exist for Myspace? WTF?
I wondered how long it would take for a service like this to appear!
I previously thought it was good policy for Twitter to disallow name sales. But the press Twitter will receive for say, the first name to sell for over $10,000 should be pretty substantial, no?
Heck, if early Twitter adopters end up cashing in on their usernames, I say more power to ‘em.
I’m still upset that twitter won’t allow me to register a variant of my full name because my last name contains “admin”…
FYI. This is against Twitter’s TOS. They can delete and purge usernames that are listed for sale on this site.
Quite the contrary adam as I have said to you on the other site, if you are providing a service and you give the name to someone, and then they pay you for a service as let’s say social media consultant, cnncrk has proven this to be allowable.
This is false, the service is against the TOS.
Then how was CNN able to do it? They did it the same way Sarah? What is the difference if I want the name @sarah and you say ok I wont sell it to you, I will give it to you for free, but I want you to hire me as your social media specialist for $1000 lets say?
Craig:
http://help.twi...7/entries/18370
What service? Your own terms on the site were way too simple and don’t appear to be written by a lawyer.
cnnbrk didn’t violate the TOS because the name wasn’t being squatted on, and CNN never purchased the handle, they hired the guy that ran it as a consultant and it included the use of the twitter account. This service completely violates the TOS on twitter so it’ll be interesting to see what happens to it.
and they SHOULD!
boo squatters …
I’ll drop a #deuce for that.
http://www.twitpoop.com.
it’s stupid to sell your twitter account. it’s both against the TOS and you ‘re losing loads of potential profit.
i have a plan for the perfect twitter promotions system where the revenue is shared among twitter, the users and the ad agent.
Maybe someday many people will see what my handle is and buy with a good price
lol…Anyways, congrats to Ashton Kutcher for reaching 1 million follower and naming as The King of Twitter. 
Cheers,
Julius
I think that hyping of Twitter by TC is similar to the way CNN money etc hyped losing Wall Street stocks. Absolutely of no value but a few people will make out like bandits. May be its going to be TC?
Value is determined by demand. It might be of absolutely no value to YOU, but it might be valuable in the market place.
Yeah. And there are SEC laws against front-running and pushing up the so-called demand. That is what I was referring to…
ahha.. I see your point.
Logo is good. That’s one happy bird.
Rules are made to break. Twitter should allow the trading.
I think I would buy Gary for $500. I do not know about all the talk of squatting on corporate names but my friends and I would like to have a vanity plate like name. Full Disclosure is I work with the founder @ VOIS.com and think it is very cool.
Yes I might be very biased, but it is how I feel.
Now sell me Gary!
Such a great idea, I’ve decided to sell my own username “TweetHacker” for $50.
speaking of value for twitter handles, what do you think the @jobs would be worth if things continue as they are with respect to it’s growth. Twitter was smart to keep that one.
Why is Techcrunch writing articles to publicize companies violating Twitter’s TOS?
Twitter cancelled our twitter.com/opensocial because google wants it (and later ev said it’s not google but opensocialfoundation wants it) and gave it to whomever we’re still trying to find out, even though we already pointed out that google did not even own for example opensocial.com, nor did google cancel our opensocial@gmail.com addr.
That resale policy is ridiculous for one major important reason: it’s not in the actual TOS you agree to abide by when you sign up http://twitter.com/tos
That policy only states that “We reserve the right to reclaim usernames on behalf of businesses or individuals that hold legal claim or trademark on those usernames.” It says nothing about your right or lack thereof to sell names.
Your totally right Pierre. i like how Twitter can alter the rules and exempt CNN but suggest others shouldnt do the same its just pure nonsense.
I’m not sure they exempted CNN. Sounds like this “consultant job” was the way around it.
Well then anybody can do the same and keep the newly acquired username right? well we will see! or is this more like george orwells animal farm where “all pigs are equal but some pigs are more equal than others”
You know I just read about this over on bloomberg and that the kid who came up with this built the whole site for under $1000 on using his employers site http://www.vois.com i think thats just awesome. why didnt techcrunch pick up that part i mean its the human element right? or maybe this is twittercrunch
Searches do not seem accurate, since at times it says available but on Twitter.com they are already taken.
What’s up?
The Twitter api does not indicate if a name is suspended and appears as available in the search
I have “iPhoneAppUpdate” for sale, leave your contact info as in comment if you are interested, haha.
I’ll give you $10,000 for it.
Shoot me an email at iPhoneAppUpdate@gmail.com,
Buy one(twitter account), get one(gmail account) for free. Sincerely inquiry only.
Bah. I will give you twelve coffee pooping Luwak and a pound of “processed” coffee beans. Such is the word of Sanjay.
cloudstorage for sale, listed up there.. best nearest offer takes it.. and awaiting to see if twitter inc wants to cancel this one (see the opensocial one above)
twitter is a fad, too much time to maintain an account unless you do nothing but twitter all day long
which is what out of work actor ashton does
Well, some latency bugs on the site: @water and @helpme are suspended, though Tweexchange say they are available.
Great exactly what we need an application that facilitates squating. I say shut the crap down.
Ahh poor benny didn’t think of this idea himself and now is jealous and wants to be a hater. I say we shut benny down
Looks like you got shut down
http://twitter.com/Tweexchange
twit owned lmao
Stupid… does not work.. I tried stevencolbert, cnnbrk, cnn and it says everything is available. Then you go to twitter and of course its not available.
Names which are suspended still appear as available, there is nothing we can do with that as far as I can see with the api.
the “Poker_Star” one is pretty nice. wonder if an actual poker player will spend $1000 for it.
There are a ton of great twitter apps popping up everyday. Why does this shitty one get coverage?
whether this violates the tos is one thing, but be under no illusion of the potential of owning keyword generics on twitter…..
its a fu
cking gold dust
Site wont be around for long. Their twitter account http://twitter.com/tweexchange has already been suspended!
Oh no… No more spamming like domain grabbing. I am waiting for people to sell their Facebook account…
I got some great Twitter names:
@DailyDesignNews
@DesignerCrew
@StudioLADesign
I am waiting for the best Offer
adrian.spiegel@gmx.de
At first i thought this would be cool. then i checked on a name my buddy wanted but was taken, and this site said it was available… I reproduced the same error several times with other names my friends currently are using.. SMH
Every time a Twitter post is written, an angel loses it wings
The name search features does not work correctly in the Tweexchange website. I search my own name and it still show available. Also the drop down search result does not disappear and it is annoying!!
FUCK TWITTER.
People need to get a life and stop “tweeting”. How the hell can you tweet about every little aspect of your daily life? NO ONE CARES!
Frickin’ narcissists.
Twitter Rocks the Twittosphere ! No matter how many competitor it has !
Cheers !
HellBound Bloggers
i’m sorry, i’ve tried it and it’s not working well. it shows taken names as available…
tweexchange doesnt work properly. it shows every twitter available. when i searched for my twitter name, it said its available. what rubbish is that?
twitter has also suspended the twitter account of tweexchange.
get latest technology news at TechnoFreak
I’m willing to consider selling my twitter name for $250,000.
You all might also like my site:
Domain Pigeon.com
We list over 80,000 available domain and Twitter names which visitors are free to register as they please. If you have any questions or suggestions please feel free to drop me a note: support@domainpigeon.com. Happy hunting!
thanks
http://www.assetize.com just launched too, and is a much cleaner twitter account marketplace.