Those little green reweet buttons you see across the web on sites like this one have helped TweetMeme rise in popularity. The buttons are now so ubiquitous that the service has seemingly become the de-facto retweeting mechanism for content on the web. But it looks like it’s about to get a challenger, with a killer name, Retweet.com.
Retweet.com currently only has a a landing page saying that it’s “coming soon,” so it’s hard to know exactly what it is from that. But there are plenty of clues around the web pointing to it being a TweetMeme competitor. The main hint comes from a design contest taking place at 99designs. The prize is over $1,000 to design the site, and all of the mockups look very similar to TweetMeme (which, to be fair, takes a lot of its look from sites like Digg).
And there’s more. The group behind Retweet.com, Mesiab Labs (which seems to have a poor reputation among the Twitter community for products like Hummingbird, that some have accussed of spamming others), has a few sites related to Retweet.com that are already live. One is the URL shortener RT.nu, which will clearly be used to send out the retweets from Retweet.com. Another site, Checkretweet, scours Twitter for retweets for any user. Each of these play into the bigger strategy of the site, according to this blog post. And here’s the key nugget from that post, “Together, these systems allow us to detect and deliver breaking news faster than any other media outlet at present.”
So it looks like they’re setting up Retweet to take on not only TweetMeme, but also Digg, Google News, Techmeme and the new service that Bit.ly is working on. They key to all of this is obviously the links that are getting tweeted out and then retweeted. And because the latter word is entering the lexicon of the web, Retweet.com has a pretty awesome domain for trying to come along with a new service in this field.
That little trademark sign in the upper right hand corner of the logo is also interesting. It may just be for the logo, because it seems like they might have a hard time trademarking the word “retweet.” Though, that would be a potentially very scary situation for TweetMeme and all those little green buttons.
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves though, Retweet.com still has to execute — and launch. But this is probably something to watch.
[thanks Orli]
It would have to be a very compelling offer to get big blogs to switch buttons. So far tweetmeme has been pretty solid.
Great domain name though!
twittersphere.com does the job without the clutter.
Fuck them.
They also run hummingbird ( http://twitaddi...om/hummingbird/ ) which is the #1 twitter spam tool there is. Tired of spam account following you, msging you or whatnot? This sleazebag company is behind it.
Just wanted to follow up on my previous comment.
It disturbs me that praise is being given to this company. So much of where their income comes from involves ruining the experience of twitter for other users.
I really hope that as twitter shows to be taking spam more seriously, that they initiate some form of legal action against this company. Its ridiculous that not only is a company thats primary purpose is to spam can do so, and charge for it.
http://search.t...ingbird+twitter
No praise here, just a note about a new entry in a hot field with a killer domain name. But I added in a blurb about the backlash against Hummingbird.
Killer domain name – it’s one of those that we are all saying: ” I should have thought of that”. Hope they got over their bas business practices.
if you’re really a business coach, you will be able to name one company that has been able to make it to the big time based on their domain name.
me too. i ‘d really like to know one.
Porn.com
is porn.com big? one of the biggest in porn? what about sex.com. i even doubt these are
I’d love to see the TLD cashback (like the bit.ly payments to libya, etc.). i bet tuvalu has a kicking little cashflow, and all the url shorteners are paying off for these little islands, like, say reunion (.re) and such.
doesn’t techcrunch get any interesting startup submissions to promote?
You should not trash talk the person that created the program. Trash on the people that abuse the program. Hate only feeds the machine. Be happy at their success. Maybe you will succeed one day too, once you drop the “fuck them” attitude.
It clearly states in the Terms & Agreements to the program that you are not to abuse it. Don’t crucify the creator, crucify the dicks that are spamming you.
I agree with Dan.
Plus they worked super hard to come up with good ideas that make money and feed their families. We can only hope to be as successful and as creative as the guys Mesiab Labs.
What could they possibly do to make as simple a concept as RTing into something that’ll make install their eventual WordPress plugin?
Good to see TechCrunch appreciate a killer domain name
In case anybody is interested, tweet.in is at auction now. A killer domain that was previously owned by Twitter (they let it expire):
http://flippa.c...wned-by-Twitter
with good reason.
I love TechCrunch but I am surprised that you guys took the time to write a story on this, create a few screen shots but then say that the service “only has a landing page” (via retweet.com), because when you look at the Technical Brief on 99designs they call out:
“The design must take the current platform here: ( http://174.129.199.128/meme/ ) and present the information, content, & navigation as well as Digg and Tweetmeme have done. Think Web 2.0!”
Thus their technology is already visible, it is just ugly as sin until they pick a winning design!
haha if you look at their widget code, it includes
tweetmeme_url = ‘http://yoururl.com’;
they just copy-pasted tweetmeme pages.
(the irony is, i used parts of tweetmeme widget code myself to my own site, which is not dependent on twitter)
Nice catch on the actual code. When it comes to the Internet it’s hard to keep intellectual property to yourself
you’re right..even we have virtual FBI, Internet is very fastest moving information resources..
They FAIL!
After looking at their site at http://174.129.199.128/meme/ I noticed that their just a rip off of Tweetmeme and none of the design entries are very good.
yeah, well as long as they can trick TechCrunch into blogging about them they can flip everything for some cash without having to do anything (save possibly having to pay out $1250 for a logo).
Thanks to Travis for providing the link with actual value and good catch on the code tenthings.
Will be interesting to monitor how their reputation impacts this initiative.
The URL is def killer though. Wonder how much it cost?
MG-
Good article but you’re not quite understanding how 99designs works. There are no “bids.” Rather, Retweet.com is offering a prize of $1,250 to the design they like the best. Designers are competing for the prize.
right, sorry will fix the wording there.
Wow, how exciting! A web site. That does nothing. That we know nothing about. That we don’t know even how it’s gonna look. That will probably do what others are already doing pretty well.
But one day people will crave for ‘retweet’ so much they’re gonna be typing it directly on the address bar.
Don’t be surprised if they sell the domain to tweetmeme in October
P.S. keep in mind that twitter has applied to trademark “tweet” already, although it remains to them whether they will exercise their rights
Anybody for a free TV???
http://rapidsha...Internet-TV.rar
spamming for rapidshit points on TC now? why not just get a real job?
Interesting that their twitter acct has been suspended: http://twitter.com/retweet
Two *snaps* for karma!
should we get ready for reFacebook, reYahoo or reGoogle?
not a bad idea.
Funny how someone can possess the greatest killer domain portfolio and you guys wont give us the time of day. Someone mocks twitter and tweetmeme with a “me too” domain name” linked to a dead homepage they get consideration as something to watch? the domain is good because it represents “twitter with a filter.” why go to twitter at all when retweet prefilters and ranks the twittersphere? I believe the twittersphere is still up for grabs and unless twitter ramps up its features ASAP a company like retweet could come out of nowhere and steal the show.
Looked at retweet, but chose to stick with tweetmeme, it’s doing the job nicely
But ReTweet isn’t out yet.
How did you look at it. I’ll give it to you that their landing page sucks!
check out their URL. i’ll give you three guesses as to what you’re responding to.
Looks interesting! I’d love to give it a try! I think it will be a little different than Tweetmeme in that it’s not going to be all about links.
A little OT: how broken are those SnapShot site-image popups TechCrunch runs next to every user URL? Pretty unprofessional.
I thought that was a French battle cry… “Retweet! Retweet!
HaHa. Thank you for making my afternoon. This reminds me a lot of the old joke with the Google spoof when you hit “I’m feeling lucky” for the term “French Military Victory”.
LOL. delightful
Its kinda cool idea: They build a tweetmeme-competitor, already having the url shortener in background ( http://rt.nu/ ) and got the trademark on the word retweet (i guess – just the logo wouldnt hurt tweetmeme ;-D).
Could be something – but infact they failed copying the tweetmeme code someplace… Added to watchlist
Tieing your product to another brand or service and then tieing the domain to it as well. . . not exactly a great idea. What happens when you want to expand or if twitter sells out or retweet disappears as the cool new lingo ? We saw this discussion when twitter went and tm’ed tweet.
https://auction...ecentSales.aspx – Click here to view some more killer domain names (tweet.me included) that were sold in the recent .me domain auction. Its interesting to note the data related to the number of bids made for each domain and the price (the columns values and bid sort when clicked). You’ll find some killer domain names that were auctioned for less compared to mediocre domain names.
Before they changed it to just a landing page, the site looked like this: http://bit.ly/52rNA
Hopefully the site is as good as the domain name.
Their logo is saved as a jpg.
FAIL
That domain name is pretty sick. Now if they can trademark retweet, it’ll become the number one retweeting site. It will definitely be interesting to see what happens. I’m surprised no one took the domain name earlier. http://ziggytek.com/
Retweet.com domain name seems great because people retweet and it is retweet.com but I think it would not do much more because people do not have to do with name, they need button and they have it.
If retweet.com is going to do more than just retwwet then there is something to consider.
Looks great, cant wait, nothing like competition
“That little trademark sign in the upper right hand corner of the logo is also interesting.”
They can stick a little TM next to their name all they want. Doesn’t mean it is their trademark and it doesn’t mean they will be able to register the word “retweet.”
In fact, I’ll bet one whole US dollar that an application to register “retweet” as their trademark will not succeed.
TweetMeme needs to step fast, their wordpress plugin which I use, and so does techcrunch is buggy to say the least. If retweet steps up quickly they can easily steal tweetmeme’s thunder.
You guys really get impressed with a good domain name, don’t you?
Ah! Sneaky … TechCrunch you broke the news early! Looks like we ( Mesiab Labs ) will be pulling a few all nighters to release.
[ Bloggers ] We have big plans for Retweet.com and look to offer some great incentives to get people to change their “tweetmeme” buttons to the “real retweet” button!
We realize change is never easy to overcome, but we’re strong believers in innovation.
Just a few tid bits, we plan to first focus greatly on the categorization algorithm as we beleive this to be the most important aspect. We also do have a trademark pending
Thanks for the great article!
Tyson Quick
Tyson, I’m assuming the all nighters until release will include getting your own code instead of hijacking Tweetmeme’s?
I own tweople.com and wanna sell it.
Anyone interested?
I shared a beach house with Mesiab Labs for a month. I was in Hawaii working on a software project (www.justaddmango.com – which is in closed beta) and they came out of the blue and wanted to move into the house next door…It wasn’t available yet and knowing nothing about them besides they were in software too and about my age – me being 20, I let them move in with me while they waited. I saw this thing unfold from day one.
They offered to take me on as their project manager, but I didn’t take it and instead jumped ship and went home (to the mainland). I hope they’re successful – and I have no doubt they will be – but my personal ethics would have been compromised by joining their team. After using their product for around a month, I agree with the comments (and the article blurb) that insinuate that twitter automation products do nothing but pollute the Twittersphere and turn Twitter into a massive cess pool that is extremely difficult to extract any real value from, save “I can sell you more Twitter followers.”
I suspect the only reason they made such spectacle of the design contest was to help get the TM granted. Anyone know of any other company that publicly presents everything they plan on building before they even finish the design? I could be mistaking, but strategically it doesn’t make much sense, especially when they’re entering a market with established competitors.
Thank you to MG for a well balanced article.
Thank you to Calvin for being legitimate. He had a rare insight to the inner workings of Mesiab Labs. I of course wish him good luck on his ventures. Where he is not one to elaborate in luxury or fame, Mesiab Labs is.
Action, reaction.
An entity feels threatened, so start pointing those fingers.
“…the mockups look very similar to TweetMeme (which, to be fair, takes a lot of its look from sites like Digg)” – I thank you for touching on this. We are all just a copy, of a copy, of a copy. Retweet.com is just a better domain name.
And you better Retweet this!
TweetMeme is in a world of hurt!! Why didnt they aquire the brand name? I’m pretty sure I’m already convinced to switch over to retweet.. it just seems so natural!
they are dominating the success of twitter..
With all the other domain names retweet.com is gathering tweetmeme is going to have to depend on their current user base and the fact they have had the retweet button longer.
Other than that I feel as if retweet.com is going to inevitably take over especially since they are gathering the RT domain and checkretweet. A TLD is one of the biggest factors in a successful web based business. Tweetmeme.com only has the advantage of loyal users where retweet.com has the advantage of every single user who is just looking for a retweet button and doesn’t care who makes it.
If Tweetmeme wants to really compete they should use their un limiting domain name to come up with more Twitter extensions while retweet.com is stuck with just retweeting. There are benifits to a non key word domain. Tweetmeme just needs to take advantage of their open brandability and be the king of Twitter tools rather than the king of the retweet.