I just want to play devils advocate for a minute here. You don’t mind do you?

Word is spreading fast that Twitter will soon implement retweets into the web interface and API. That’s right, Retweets are no longer just a geek thing. Retweets are no longer just an early adopter thing. Retweeting will officially be mainstream, something we already knew. But now, Twitter will add it to your list of tabs, making it official.

What Would Twitter Do?
  

On one hand, I wonder what this will mean for services like Tweetmeme, a retweet aggregator? Is this a sign that Twitter is planning to buy such services? Or will they start one of their own? There are a lot of paths Twitter can take, which we can speculate on another day.

Today, I want to know if you think officially adding retweets into the UI could hype the popularity problems that are spreading throughout Twitter.

High School Behavior Infiltrates Twitter

So what is the Twitter popularity problem? Too many people are choosing quantity over quality when it comes to followers. As high school as it is, it’s not going to change. You can’t deny that the higher the follower count, the more likely others are to follow back. In the case of Twitter’s Retweet API, the higher the numbers, the higher your chances are of being retweeted. And the higher your chances are of getting more traffic. And the higher your chances are for more money making opportunities.

Do you see where this is going?

I’d hate to start seeing links being spread for popularity sake instead of for quality and usefulness. It’s already getting out of hand in many ways. Though, one benefit that I am looking forward to seeing from the implementation of the ReTweet API is credit to the original author. As I stated before: Retweeting is the new linkback.

But What Do You Think?

• What are the benefits of seeing who has retweeted content that you’re about to retweet?
• If you didn’t know who retweeted it, would you still retweet it?
• What effects will knowing have on your retweeting behavior?