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"Today's big news is that Twitter has just announced phase one of Project Retweet, their program to formalize the retweeting movement on Twitter. They're opening up the flood gates so that developers can tap into the four new APIs and update their applications, or build new ones, in preparation for the official release, which is expected to happen in just a few weeks.\nWe're definitely excited to see Twitter embrace the art of retweeting and try to support it. In fact, it reminds us of Twitter's early days, prior to the official support of mentions. The original version of Twitter did not include a formal way for Twitterers to respond to others' tweets, so users took it upon themselves to copy a BBS-style reply format and add an @ symbol in front of a username, and replies were born. Twitter eventually caught on to the reply movement, making replies a very real part of the Twitter ecosystem.\nBut does retweeting, a Twitter trend all its own that's very much akin to forwarding an email, require the same formal adoption and API support? We're not so sure, as Project Retweet is going to flip the format we've come to expect on its head. Here we'll dissect some of the implications surrounding Twitter's plan to formalize retweeting.\nThe New Look of Retweets\n\nIf you've read our other coverage surrounding Project Retweet, then you're probably well aware that the new retweets will look quite different. The retweet has always taken the form of \"RT @username: original tweet.\" Once Project Retweet comes to fruition, the RT and @ symbol will be stripped from the tweet. What you'll see instead is the original tweet, from the original author, and a new field below the date/time stamp that reads, \"Retweeted by [username].\" If there are multiple retweeters, then you'll see multiple Twitter names.\nThe new look of retweets has interesting implications, because now your followers will see tweets in their timeline from people you follow that they may not be following. Follow? So let's say that you follow me but don't follow Mashable. Now when I retweet Mashable, you'll see the tweet from Mashable, not from me. This could get a little hairy.\nHere's why. You've already become accustomed to seeing tweets from the people you follow, so a retweet from a trusted party actually means something. If Ben Parr, a fellow Mashable editor, retweets something, I immediately sit up and take notice. Now, however, if a tweet shows up in my timeline, without the RT format I've come to expect, I may miss it at first and not attribute any value to its contents.\nOf course, we hope to see developers build in ways to get notifications for retweets (similar to audio notifications for replies in our favorite desktop apps) from the people we trust, and this could be a potential way to ensure that we don't overlook valuable retweets as they happen. But, if the sample screenshots are a visual representation of what we can expect from Twitter.com, then retweets do run the risk of being missed.\nWhat Happens to Our Retweet Analysis?\n\nAnother retweet conundrum surrounds appended Twitterer analysis. As you've no doubt been exposed to, retweets are often accompanied by an introductory statement of analysis by the retweeter. Maybe we think we can add more value to the original tweet, but whatever the reason, many of us have become accustomed to adding our two cents to tweets that we retweet.\nThe new retweet format, however, doesn't seem to leave room for our additional commentary. So when we hit the new retweet button on Twitter.com, or in any of the third party apps that support the new APIs, what can we expect? Can we insert our words of wisdom? If so, where do they go? We know we'd be more than a little disappointed if this offshoot of retweeting behavior was taken away from us.\nRetweeting Extras\n\nPutting some of our initial questions aside, let's take a look at some of the benefits we're likely to get as a result of the four new retweet APIs:\n1. Retweets in the new home timeline: We actually really like the idea of seeing all the different Twitterers retweeting a status update within the tweet itself. This approach is a lot less cluttered than the RT @username: RT @username: redundancy we see all the time. In fact, getting a more aggregate view of all retweets related to a single tweet, within our timelines sounds like a beautiful thing.\n2. Retweeted by me timeline: Now this is nifty. Twitter and third-party developers will start to create ways for us to get a filtered view of our own retweets \u2014 currently set to return the 20 most recent retweets. We can only fantasize about what this could look like, but we love the idea of seeing and analyzing our own retweeting behavior.\n3. Retweeted to me timeline: Retweets from the people I follow serve to draw my attention to content I may have missed. So this particular API addresses part of what we talked about above, making sure we don't miss retweets that were meant for our eyes. In this fashion, we should be able to get a filtered view of just the retweets from our Twitter friends.\n4. My tweets, retweeted: This API will return the 20 most recent tweets that are retweets of me. This could also be a very useful way for us to get a filtered view of people retweeting us. Sure we could use searches to probably arrive at similar results, but we're looking forward to seeing how developers can slice this up and make it pretty and functional.\nWere Retweets Broken?\nThe existence of Project Retweet \u2014 ie. formalized retweeting \u2014 essentially implies that Twitter felt that current retweeting practices need repairing. But were retweets ever really broken?Granted the four APIs will bring significant additional functionality around retweets, features we've never been privy to before, but is it at a cost that takes away some of the intended purpose behind retweets? Eliminating retweet redundancy, adding retweet filters, these are all good, but we're not entirely convinced we needed a new retweet format.\nAnd this is where you come in. We'd love for you to share your thoughts on the impending nature of retweets. Did retweets need fixing? Are these changes for the better or worse? Are there any implications of the new APIs that we didn't cover? Use the comments to tell us what you think.\nTwitterigami image courtesy of I am Paddy"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2009/08/13/project-retweet-analysis/>