Twitter has launched its official Tweet button for publishers to place on their content. There are numerous unofficial buttons out there that publishers have been taking advantage of for quite a while, but now there’s one right from the company that counts tweets no matter how they were tweeted.
Actually, Twitter is working with TweetMeme on this one. TweetMeme has been offering probably the most popular version of the tweet button for publishers. Twitter says TweetMeme will be switching over to the official Twitter button anyway.
"When you click on the Tweet Button, a Tweet box will appear — pre-populated with a shortened link that points to the item that you’re sharing," explains Twitter’s Carolyn Penner. "After you post to Twitter, you may see suggestions for accounts to follow. These accounts are suggested by the web site you visited and may include, for example, the news outlet and reporter of the article you shared."
"The Tweet Button is not only simple for users, but for publishers of all sizes, too," adds Penner. "Recreational bloggers to large media companies can quickly and easily add the Tweet Button to their sites. It only takes a few lines of code. The Tweet Button will help publishers grow traffic and increase their Twitter following."
Twitter also announced a number of sites that are already using the new Tweet button starting today. These include Ask.com, CBS Interactive, CNN, Cracked, eHow, Gawker Media, Huffington Post, Hulu, The Onion, Time.com, USAToday, and YouTube.
Update: TweetMeme had the following to say on their blog:
"Firstly we will be assisting Twitter with the technical challenges involved with the button and secondly we will be working even more closely in the future on delivering real-time curation of the Twitter Firehose. This will manifest itself in the launch of a number of new products and the first of these is being unveiled today."
Tweetmeme also notes that it has grown to over 750 million daily retweet button impressions.