Twitter To Offer “Verified Accounts”

Jun 6, 2009 at 5:05pm ET by Danny Sullivan

Finally, Twitter’s making a move toward verified accounts — with the news coming out from the service in response to reports it had settled a lawsuit with the manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, Tony La Russa, over how someone apparently impersonated him on the service. Twitter denies any settlement.

Earlier today, St. Louis Today reported that Twitter has settled a trademark infringement suit with La Russa over what he called the “unauthorized use” of his name. Someone had grabbed @tonylarussa and apparently was pretending to be him.

Twitter, in a blog post today, denied any settlement. The post also said that Twitter would be launching “Verified Accounts” later this summer:

The experiment will begin with public officials, public agencies, famous artists, athletes, and other well known individuals at risk of impersonation. We hope to verify more accounts in the future but due to the resources required, verification will begin only with a small set.

Twitter could easily verify a larger number accounts by providing automated verification in a variety of ways. My Time For Verified Twitter Accounts & An Easy Way To Do It covers some options on this.

Still, it’s a start, and a welcome one. Verified Accounts will have a special seal that shows, as illustrated in the screenshot above.

For related stories, see Techmeme.

Danny Sullivan is editor-in-chief of Search Engine Land. He’s a widely cited authority on search engines and search marketing issues who has covered the space since 1996. Danny also oversees Search Engine Land’s SMX: Search Marketing Expo conference series, maintains a personal blog called Daggle and microblogs on Twitter as @dannysullivan.

See more articles by Danny Sullivan >

Share, Bookmark & Discuss This Article
More:

See more stories like this in the Members Library! Check out the Twitter sections of the Members Library where this story is filed. Members also get access to exclusive video content, a members-only weekly & monthly newsletter, plus more. Check out all the benefits!

FREE DAILY SEARCH NEWS RECAP!

Stay on top of all the search news with our daily summary, the SearchCap newsletter. View a sample ›

STAY CURRENT THROUGHOUT THE DAY

The Search Engine Land feed keeps you informed as news happens. SEE ALL FEEDS »

chiropractic, June 7th, 2009 at 4:56 am ET:
Premium member since 01/2009

I’m all for it, looks like a great move, especially considering the Tony La Russa situation. I think I’d be more likely to trust certain accounts if they were verified.

nickstamoulis, June 9th, 2009 at 6:09 am ET:
Premium member since 06/2009

I think it is about time for verified Twitter accounts…there are too many spam and non-legitimate spam accounts out there!

Twitter To Offer “Verified Accounts”

FREE DAILY SEARCH NEWS RECAP!

STAY CURRENT THROUGHOUT THE DAY

Get Your Search Engine Land Premium Membership!

Get Your Search Engine Land
Premium Membership!