Twitter Starts Using the Word 'Tweet' on Its Site

Twitter may be on the cutting edge of technology, communications, news reporting, social media, online marketing and any number of other related fields but it's actually a very slow moving company when it comes to changes to its product. It makes sense to be cautious to change a service known and loved for its simplicity and which owes much of its features to a very vibrant and fast-pacing community. Still, you have to change something eventually and the company has made a small but important tweak, replacing the "update" moniker with the much more popular and well-known, not to mention recently copyrighted, “tweet.”

The change makes sense as everyone refers to the act of posting an update as “tweeting” and to the updates themselves as “tweets.” The words have made their way into the mainstream and popular culture so Twitter has decided to finally change the wording, now using “tweets” instead of updates in the upper right corner next to the followers’ count. The change isn't site-wide though, as the button on the main page still reads “update” although this will most likely change too.

After being widely used for a while, the words have even been included in the AP Stylebook, which has been the de facto standard for journalists, at least in the US. The Stylebook describes both “Twitter” and “tweet” and their various forms and how to properly use them.

In fact, Twitter actually copyrighted the word “tweet,” something made public after a third-party developer was asked to make some changes to its app and also made aware that Twitter was “'uncomfortable with the use of the word Tweet.” Biz Stone stepped in to clarify that applications weren't targeted if they used tweet in their names but the website has taken steps to protect its assets. However, even though it has the copyright, this is the first time the company has used the term officially on its site.