Some internal discussion here on people that grab brand name Twitter handles so they can later sell them to the highest bidder. Like the domain squatters of old. Remember Joshua Quittners mcdonalds.com stunt? Yahoo colleague Ryan Kuder came up with the term.
squitter n. an individual who grabs a brand name twitter handle for future profit.
Let’s see how long these stay open:
- http://twitter.com/chevron
- http://twitter.com/citibank
- http://twitter.com/boeing
- http://twitter.com/sears
http://twitter.com/mcdonalds is taken.
I love twitter-based words – always funny to say! Having said that, in the official terms of use, Twitter states that they reserve the right to reclaim usernames for those that officially own the trademark to the name. So in essence, nobody can really hold "hostage" a brand-name username. Ex: Nintendo is currently being squatted upon – but if the "Big N" wanted to use Twitter as a PR stunt, they could easily take it back. Which is good. I'd hate to have to see some stupid fiasco come out of this. ^_^