WebProNews

Spam is something that can have a serious impact on Twitter: It annoys individual users, messes up lists of trending topics, and even makes the site look less suitable for businesses and monetization.  It's a good thing, then, that Twitter's going after spammers with a new spam reporting option.

In the past, people who noticed a spammer would have to know about and contact a special @spam account.  Now, they can just click a simple "report _____ for spam" link on a profile.  You can see it highlighted below on John Cleese's profile, for example (although rest assured, his recent tweet about the Nigerian lottery isn't spam).

That screenshot also highlights a sort of problem, however.  John Cleese is a famous comedian known all over the world, and his Twitter account has been verified.  So if even he can be turned in for spam, it's hard to know where Twitter will draw the line about acting on such reports.

Indeed, Twitter hasn't said anything about the new spam reporting option - a big hat tip goes to Adam Ostrow here.  Some guidelines may be necessary so that people and businesses don't employ it against their rivals.

Still, this represents a smart and much-needed move that should help make Twitter a better and more useful site.  Happy clicking.