You know those accident scenes where everyone crowds around to see what’s happening only to be told by the police “Move along, there’s nothing interesting happening here”?
Well, Twitter’s recent assertions that spam has been dealt a massive defeat is eerily similar. According to Twitter, spam has dropped to less than 1% due, in part, to the concerted efforts it has been making to stop spam in its tracks.
The question is whether Twitter has its facts right or whether it’s being overly optimistic.
TwitSweeper, a Waterloo, Ont.-based anti-spam service for Twitter, did its own spam analysis, and discovered that of the 1.7 million followers it checked, 83,000 followers, or 5%, were “spammy”.
As TwitSweeper makes clear in a blog post, one of the key issues is determining what constitutes spam on Twitter. It may very well be that Twitter’s definition is focused on Twitters who are blatantly “spammy”, while TwitSweeper takes a more broad approach.
Regardless of which approach is more relevant or accurate, there is no doubt that Twitter spam is a problem and, most likely, will become an even bigger problem as Twitter becomes more popular.
As much as Twitter is doing its best to control spam, there’s no doubt services such as TwitSweeper will start to emerge on the scene much like e-mail spam companies have been industry stalwarts.
How Much Twitter is There?
Well, Twitter’s recent assertions that spam has been dealt a massive defeat is eerily similar. According to Twitter, spam has dropped to less than 1% due, in part, to the concerted efforts it has been making to stop spam in its tracks.
The question is whether Twitter has its facts right or whether it’s being overly optimistic.
TwitSweeper, a Waterloo, Ont.-based anti-spam service for Twitter, did its own spam analysis, and discovered that of the 1.7 million followers it checked, 83,000 followers, or 5%, were “spammy”.
As TwitSweeper makes clear in a blog post, one of the key issues is determining what constitutes spam on Twitter. It may very well be that Twitter’s definition is focused on Twitters who are blatantly “spammy”, while TwitSweeper takes a more broad approach.
Regardless of which approach is more relevant or accurate, there is no doubt that Twitter spam is a problem and, most likely, will become an even bigger problem as Twitter becomes more popular.
As much as Twitter is doing its best to control spam, there’s no doubt services such as TwitSweeper will start to emerge on the scene much like e-mail spam companies have been industry stalwarts.