
Bots are crawling new domain registrations and namesquatting Twitter handles - duggan
http://rossduggan.ie/blog/technology/bots-are-crawling-new-domain-registrations-and-namesquatting-twitter-handles/
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cletus
I haven't seen anyone ask the obvious question: just how many of Twitter's
~175 million accounts [1] are simply bots for this and other reasons?

I haven't used my Twitter handle in the better part of a year (I tried it;
sorry but for me it's just a glorified link aggregator and not a particularly
interesting one at that) but somehow I still get people following me.

Number of users for a site like Twitter is no doubt an important metric. It
probably comes up in funding rounds. Those funding rounds will probably have
goals/targets for Twitter to reach. Twitter has, to my knowledge, only ever
stated the number of accounts, rather than the 7 or 30 day actives.

This all begs the question: does Twitter have a vested interest in inflating
their own numbers such that they like bot auto-registration and, well,
anything that increases the account total?

[1]: [http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-how-many-
use...](http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-how-many-users-does-
twitter-really-have-2011-3)

~~~
retube
> Twitter has, to my knowledge, only ever stated the number of accounts,
> rather than the 7 or 30 day actives.

I can't believe a VC sticking $100m into a social network like twitter doesn't
demand very detailed breakdowns on user metrics.

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mcpherrinm
What Twitter tells a VC with millions of dollars is quite likely different
from what they tell the general public for issues like this.

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gyardley
What a great opportunity for a registrar to differentiate themselves! They
could tell you if your handle is available on popular social media services
before you register your domain, and then help you sign up for your handle
simultaneously with your registration.

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slouch
Godaddy already tells me to get twitter when I buy a domain.

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mtogo
The downside there is you have to use godaddy.

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RyanKearney
There's no downside to GoDaddy for domain names, you're just jumping on the
"fuck GoDaddy" bandwagon. I have dozens of domain names through GoDaddy and
have never had an issue. Just set your DNS servers to something else and you
never have to visit GoDaddy again.

~~~
prosa
I totally agreed with this mentality until I saw the video of the GoDaddy CEO
slaughtering an elephant in Africa.

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wisty
It's a complicated issue. I actually kind of admire him, for his ability to
take a politically incorrect side in an issue that's more complicated than
people would like to believe. Even if it is just because he's a bit of a jerk.

That said, I'm afraid to touch GoDaddy due to the horror stories about their
bait-and-switch tactics.

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highace
As well as Twitter are there any other services that should be signed up for
ASAP to avoid problems like this? Facebook, Youtube, Tumblr?

~~~
corin_
My (perhaps inaccurate) feeling is that it is most important for Twitter. In
my experience most people (except perhaps those both very familiar with the
website _and_ pretty techy) are unlikely to try and go directly to a URL for
most services based on a name, e.g. typing in www.facebook.com/ycombinator, or
whatever the youtube/tumblr/etc equivilents are. Whereas for twitter, if you
think you know the name, or even if you just think you have a good guess, lots
of people will type it right into the address bar.

Maybe this is because Twitter, right from launch, had a very clear link
between "if this is their username, it's also their display name, and also
their URL", whereas other services, while they might have done the same thing
(often as a post-launch change), it was sold more as a "this makes links look
nicer" rather than as a "go straight to an account easily" feature.

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olefoo
This shows the importance of good URL design upfront. Twitter did an amazing
job of having well defined REST-ful URLs from the beginning and it was one of
the factors responsible for their early success. The more rational, guessable
and legible your URL's the easier it is for people to use your web service.

~~~
corin_
Well, does Twitter's success show the importance of it, or does the success of
all those other sites show that it isn't actually important?

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olefoo
It's _a_ factor. Not _the_ factor solely responsible for their success. It's
like having well designed tables and chairs in a restaurant; it makes a
difference, but if the food sucks or it's in a bad location the restaurant
will still fail.

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DomainNoob
I'd like to see a HN discussion of what people think Twitter should do about
all the unused Twitter handles or those that were obviously abandoned after a
few tweets back in 2009. -Should Twitter charge a nominal fee, say $1 a year
for an account? -Should a domain name 'trump' an unused Twitter handle, ie. a
way for domain owners to acquire unused Twitter handles?

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blatherard
According to a commenter on the linked page, you can file an impersonation
report and will likely get it resolved.

~~~
icebraining
Am I the only one slightly worried about this? I mean, they aren't really
impersonating anyone, since the Twitter handle was created before the website
was even online.

First come, first served may suck sometimes, but at least it's a clear, well-
defined and fair way of allocating handles.

Before registering your personal handle, have you checked if someone had the
domain?

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duggan
I agree in principle, but I think there's scope for leeway (at least I hope
there is in this case!).

Case-by-case can be painful/time-consuming - I know, it's baked into the ethos
of the company I work for - but it has its rewards.

People have more time for a company that has more time for them.

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paulca
Registered a new domain today that I'd like the Twitter name for ... good
heads up Ross, thanks!

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duggan
Just to bring some resolution to this, I received a response from Twitter
today and, as I suspected, the namesquatting policy does not apply in my
situation.

Disappointing (since I have a small group of useless domains now, .com, .net
and .org) but a useful lesson.

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riffic
Twitter's namespace problem is inherent to a single party controlling a
centralized service.

If you want to truly own and control your own namespace, you should support
services that are distributed, like the rest of the Internet.

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glimcat
Is it just me that always registers Twitter at the same time as the domain?

~~~
user-id
/me squats @glimcat

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Hisoka
Thanks for reminding me to register a Twitter handle for my new site.. Glad
noone squatted it.

