That is the question that many people are about to ask themselves.
Just as Facebook developers recently made it possible to “Like” more than just Facebook-hosted sites, but any site, article, blog or anything else online, Twitter is now following suit with their Tweet button.
Savvy independent developers have been creating their own Tweet buttons for some time now, but none of these have caught mainstream wildfire. This one might, because it’s straight from the company itself.
Developers can now easily put a “Tweet” button on any site page, and when users click it, a simple Tweet box will appear. If the user is already logged in to Twitter, the box will be pre-populated with a shortened URL link to this page for you to share with your friends. Twitter is using their own t.co link-shortening URL service to save character space.
You can also customize a brief message to provide your followers with context, as long as your message and the shortened URL stay under Twitter’s 140-character maximum. And once the user has tweeted your article, you can also include a recommendation to follow you on Twitter as well.
Expect to start seeing this new tweety-bird tool start popping up in your favorite online hideouts. Not as a replacement to Facebook’s “Like” button, but as an alternative.