Twitter Tidbits: "Company Testing Message Wall"; Twitter Acquires Backtype; Requirement for Direct Messages on Verified Accounts Dropped

1. “Twitter Testing Facebook-Like Message Wall” (via Mashable)

Twitter is testing the feature with a small percentage of users. Spokeswoman Carolyn Penner said it was designed to “make it easier for users to engage with each other” on the microblogging service.

2. BackType Has Been Acquired By Twitter (via BackType Blog; H/T: Business Insider)

We’re thrilled to announce that BackType has been acquired by Twitter! We’ll be bringing our team and technology to Twitter’s platform team, where our focus will be developing tools for Twitter’s publisher partners.

Our vision at BackType has always been to help our customers understand the value of engagement on Twitter and other social platforms. We also created BackTweets to help publishers understand the reach of their tweets and content, who they are reaching, and how Tweets covert to web traffic, sales and other KPIs.

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The BackTweets product will now be offered to current users for free. However, as we begin to focus on our work at Twitter, we will not be accepting any new registrations for BackTweets, and we will discontinue the BackType product and API services.

Here’s an example of a free analytics tool from Backtype. We’ve used the Southwest Airlines Twitter stream @SouthwestAir.

A second example using the hashtag #ALA11

3. “Twitter Update Allows Direct Messages to Any Verified Account (via PCMag.com)

Filed under: Companies (Publishers/Vendors), Patrons and Users, Publishing