14 DAY TRIAL // Twitter has updated its official logo and guidelines for developers, bloggers and anyone else using Twitter graphics or terminology. While this mostly applies to those using Twitter resources in commercial applications, the site has a few dos and don'ts even for those just wanting to add a "Follow me on Twitter" widget to their blog.
"We’ve refreshed our logos, buttons and widgets to bring the improved look and experience of the new Twitter to your website or blog," Twitter said in the short announcement.
"Go to our resources page to add new Twitter widgets, buttons, and logos to your site. These resources are free for you to use, as long as you follow the updated Guidelines for Use of the Twitter Trademarks," it added.
There are four main types of official resources available from Twitter. There are the ubiquitous Follow me on Twitter buttons which come with three color themes and in five different sizes, to fit into any space and any theme.
There is also the official Tweet Button which enables your readers to share your content with their followers. There are plenty of customization options for the Tweet Button.
Twitter also offers widgets which adds your stream to any site or blog and, finally, you can get the Twitter logo in a variety of shapes and sizes.
While this may seem like a simple refresh of the visual theme, there are a few interesting tidbits in the guidelines.
These guidelines apply to a number of cases. They are stricter for commercial applications, book publishing, advertising and so on, but they also apply to individual bloggers.
One thing that Twitter emphasizes is the fact that you shouldn't imply any sort of endorsement or partnership with the company if there is none. This is pretty straightforward, but Twitter wants to make sure it gets the point across.
Twitter also requests that any public tweet or stream be used only with the explicit consent of the user. Twitter has clarified that this apply to news reporting or even blogging, it probably couldn't enforce the rule in these cases anyway, but more to other types of publishing.
Developers will be more interested in what they can use to name their apps or domains. The company says that domains containing "twitter" are definitely not OK. You can't use "twitter" to name your application either.
You can use "Tw" or even "Twit" though. Twitter also recommends that you only use Tweet as part of your application name if the app is solely designed for use with Twitter and not other services.
Existing applications don't have to worry about this though. Twitter has trademarked both its name and the term "Tweet" in the US, Europe and probably in other places.