Twidroid acquired by TweetUp, soon to be bundled with new Android phones as Twidroyd
By Richard Lai 
posted July 6th 2010 8:09AM
posted July 6th 2010 8:09AM
TweetUp Acquires Twidroid, #1 Twitter Client for Android – Renamed Twidroyd, the App Will Be Bundled with Millions of New Phones from 5 Leading Manufacturers
PASADENA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--TweetUp, Inc., announced today that it had acquired Twidroid, creator of the most popular and highest-rated Twitter client for Android phones. Android-powered devices constitute the fastest growing segment of the popular smart-phone market. The company also announced that the application will be renamed Twidroyd in order to ensure minimal confusion with products from Lucas Films, trademark owner of the term "droid," and will come standard on millions of upcoming Android phones from five of the leading handset manufacturers.
"Acquiring Twidroyd provides TweetUp with a number of strategic advantages"
As part of the transaction, TweetUp, Inc. will also acquire popurls®, which aggregates in one location the most popular items from the New York Times, Twitter, Digg, Delicious, Reddit, YouTube, Flickr and other news and social media sites. Combined, Twidroid and popurls will provide TweetUp with a broad distribution network on which to test and refine its platform for finding the world's best tweeters.
"Acquiring Twidroyd provides TweetUp with a number of strategic advantages," said Bill Gross, CEO of TweetUp. "Twidroyd (www.twidroyd.com) is widely considered the best Twitter client for Android phones and it leads in market share, so its growing base of users will be a valuable source of well-informed feedback on TweetUp search on mobile devices. In addition, the popurls website (www.popurls.com), which attracts users looking for a convenient guide to the most popular sites, news, videos and blogs on the Internet, will be a natural spot to display TweetUp search results and gain user feedback. This combination should enable us to more rapidly refine our offerings, generating better user experiences for distribution partners and for users searching for the world's best tweeters regardless of their choice of devices."
In April, TweetUp opened registration for the world's first bidded marketplace for real time search, and in May the company launched its search capabilities at TechCrunch, Topix.com, and Businessinsider.com. TweetUp's core search algorithms, in combination with this marketplace, address the needs of both users and tweeters in a single search mechanism. In addition to algorithms that combine a variety of factors to determine relevance, tweeters will soon be able to bid on keywords in a competitive marketplace very similar to what now occurs at Internet search engines. This sophisticated combination of factors pushes the most relevant tweeters to the top of the results of users' searches, and it enables serious tweeters to expand their following quickly and cost-effectively.
"We are extremely fortunate to have been able to join forces with TweetUp," said Thomas Marban, founder of Twidroyd and popurls. "With their resources and experience along with the bundling deals we have developed with a number of the leading device manufacturers, we believe Twidroyd can widen its lead as the top Android client for Twitter users and aggressively grow our distribution while taking advantage of TweetUp's business model for uncovering the best tweeters on topics of interest to our users."
TweetUp's search results will be available to hundreds of millions of individuals through revenue-sharing agreements with a wide range of partners. These include leading Twitter clients TweetDeck, Seesmic, and Twidroyd; the leading provider of custom browser and desktop toolbars, Conduit; the leading personalization platform for the web, Netvibes; one of the leading sources of tweets, TwitterFeed; one of the leading social media authority and influence ranking systems, Klout; as well as popular web sites including BusinessInsider.com, Answers.com, TechCrunch, Topix.com and popurls. Some sites have already begun to serve search results, and the others will come online over the next few weeks. Together, these clients and web sites will bring TweetUp search results to more than 40 million unique users per month and serve more than 100 million impressions per month.
About TweetUp
TweetUp (www.tweetup.com) is a product of Idealab (www.idealab.com), where Bill Gross also devised the first model for paid internet search, Overture/Goto.com, over a decade ago. Then, like now, the goal was creating a business model that would both improve the relevance of search results and enable a steady revenue stream for publishers. Today, the amount of noise in the Twitter feed is crying out for a similar solution, and TweetUp was formed to provide it. TweetUp is backed by Index Ventures, betaworks, Steve Case's Revolution LLC, First Round Capital, Jason Calacanis and Jeff Jarvis.
PASADENA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--TweetUp, Inc., announced today that it had acquired Twidroid, creator of the most popular and highest-rated Twitter client for Android phones. Android-powered devices constitute the fastest growing segment of the popular smart-phone market. The company also announced that the application will be renamed Twidroyd in order to ensure minimal confusion with products from Lucas Films, trademark owner of the term "droid," and will come standard on millions of upcoming Android phones from five of the leading handset manufacturers.
"Acquiring Twidroyd provides TweetUp with a number of strategic advantages"
As part of the transaction, TweetUp, Inc. will also acquire popurls®, which aggregates in one location the most popular items from the New York Times, Twitter, Digg, Delicious, Reddit, YouTube, Flickr and other news and social media sites. Combined, Twidroid and popurls will provide TweetUp with a broad distribution network on which to test and refine its platform for finding the world's best tweeters.
"Acquiring Twidroyd provides TweetUp with a number of strategic advantages," said Bill Gross, CEO of TweetUp. "Twidroyd (www.twidroyd.com) is widely considered the best Twitter client for Android phones and it leads in market share, so its growing base of users will be a valuable source of well-informed feedback on TweetUp search on mobile devices. In addition, the popurls website (www.popurls.com), which attracts users looking for a convenient guide to the most popular sites, news, videos and blogs on the Internet, will be a natural spot to display TweetUp search results and gain user feedback. This combination should enable us to more rapidly refine our offerings, generating better user experiences for distribution partners and for users searching for the world's best tweeters regardless of their choice of devices."
In April, TweetUp opened registration for the world's first bidded marketplace for real time search, and in May the company launched its search capabilities at TechCrunch, Topix.com, and Businessinsider.com. TweetUp's core search algorithms, in combination with this marketplace, address the needs of both users and tweeters in a single search mechanism. In addition to algorithms that combine a variety of factors to determine relevance, tweeters will soon be able to bid on keywords in a competitive marketplace very similar to what now occurs at Internet search engines. This sophisticated combination of factors pushes the most relevant tweeters to the top of the results of users' searches, and it enables serious tweeters to expand their following quickly and cost-effectively.
"We are extremely fortunate to have been able to join forces with TweetUp," said Thomas Marban, founder of Twidroyd and popurls. "With their resources and experience along with the bundling deals we have developed with a number of the leading device manufacturers, we believe Twidroyd can widen its lead as the top Android client for Twitter users and aggressively grow our distribution while taking advantage of TweetUp's business model for uncovering the best tweeters on topics of interest to our users."
TweetUp's search results will be available to hundreds of millions of individuals through revenue-sharing agreements with a wide range of partners. These include leading Twitter clients TweetDeck, Seesmic, and Twidroyd; the leading provider of custom browser and desktop toolbars, Conduit; the leading personalization platform for the web, Netvibes; one of the leading sources of tweets, TwitterFeed; one of the leading social media authority and influence ranking systems, Klout; as well as popular web sites including BusinessInsider.com, Answers.com, TechCrunch, Topix.com and popurls. Some sites have already begun to serve search results, and the others will come online over the next few weeks. Together, these clients and web sites will bring TweetUp search results to more than 40 million unique users per month and serve more than 100 million impressions per month.
About TweetUp
TweetUp (www.tweetup.com) is a product of Idealab (www.idealab.com), where Bill Gross also devised the first model for paid internet search, Overture/Goto.com, over a decade ago. Then, like now, the goal was creating a business model that would both improve the relevance of search results and enable a steady revenue stream for publishers. Today, the amount of noise in the Twitter feed is crying out for a similar solution, and TweetUp was formed to provide it. TweetUp is backed by Index Ventures, betaworks, Steve Case's Revolution LLC, First Round Capital, Jason Calacanis and Jeff Jarvis.
I'm using Peep. Does this make me a sinner?
@Distant yes
@Distant I'm using Touiteur, what does that make me? But really, I love Twidriod, but have really been fond of Touiteur so far!
@Distant I love peep, exept I'm unsure if it's peep or friendstream I like. They seem to merge...
LOL, awesome reference, Engadget!
lolwut
this is not the droyd you're looking for...
@goseki
wheres lord vader when you need a star wars reference?
No, no, the quote must be:
"This is not the app you're looking for"
@goseki
He was busy shopping with the emperor
http://furiousfanboys.com/2010/06/darth-vaders-first-choice-for-a-mask/
Coupled with Android's brilliant state of art interface it surely won't look like a mess! /s
I hope this means HTC are getting rid of Peep...
Dumbest name ever.
@Briandl
Is it bad if I read that and thought of the comic book store guy from The Simpsons?
I hope they don't trash it.
@wsansewjs
ditto. i love twidroid pro.
First thing to be deleted of my next android phone.
@admlshake Ha! Is it that bad?
@aubreyq I don't think its so much that's its bad but more or less we all found a twitter app we're already fond of. I already use Touiter and bought the pro, So meh
How about someone work on the Facebook app for Android.
@Certifiedfryguy
Facebook is too busy implementing other features everyone has been waiting for, such as "Facelook" which allows you to see what your friends are seeing thanks to a special camera embedded in their eyes' retinas during registration, "RealLike" which allows you to like any creature or object in the world simply by pasting a thumbs up sticker on it and last but definitely not least: "OmgWeAccidentallyLeakedAllYourPrivateInfoToOurAdPartners", which should be pretty self explanatory.
Twidroid is my favorite twitter app, so I hope this acquisition won't change the app too much.
Twitdroid was my favorite Twitter app for Android, but now I'm very happy with the official app, for it's speed.
That's a shame, I hope the other apps in the Market keep going. Touiteur is still one of the best ooking and most innovative apps in the Market.
Eh, I don't remember any scene with R2 conked out in the back like that. That looks friggin' hilarious.
@JS http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1rlThKe1qo
It's like SyFy. It's just dumb. Soon TwiDroyd will start ripping off BBC pro duction values, injecting wrestling tweets and featuring tweets by Lorenzo Lamas and spout out that giant Crocs are what we are looking for.
So, does this mean I have to buy it again? I guess it will.
I guess that's one way to get a quick revenue.
Wait... so now we have even more uninstallable crapware to worry about?! Isn't it bad enough that Froyo comes preloaded with the official Twitter app, that I don't even use? I don't Tweet. I don't want to Tweet. I don't want a Twitter app taking up space on my phone. Leave it in the Market where it belongs and stop trying to be a PC manufacturer.
@uansari1 Wow complaining about a few kb app that takes a second to remove, what next, complaining about having to push a button to turn on the phone?
@z0phi3l Do you have an Android phone? You can't uninstall included apps unless you root and manually delete them using console commands from the file system! Like I said... I have Froyo on my N1. It comes with the official Twitter app. I can't remove it without rooting. It's not the couple hundred kb of use (though they will add up eventually)...it's the f-ing principle of the matter. Bloatware is bloatware.
...and what is wrong with the official twitter client? I have no problems with that app whatsoever and I think it looks slicker.
@kstagg it's android 2.1 as minimal requirement.
Seeing as some of us *cough* samsung galaxy i7500 *cough* will never get an official 2.1 update we are stuck with these programs.
I was wondering why it changed the name when I upgraded it today. Love this app!
Luuke, use the twitforce.
Meh I'm a twicca man myself
@teesquared +1 same here!
now dan aykroyd is going to get pissed, though.
Does he really think George Lucas cares about the name of some Twitter app?
So this means the Pro version becomes free, right? Not that it really matters to me: the official Twitter app's deep integration with the Android OS makes it a must-have for my personal account. I use a 3rd party client (current Twidroid) for my anon account only.
I really hate it when they preload crap like this onto my Android phone. I already use a twitter app that I like. Why force me to have another app that I can't uninstall without rooting?
These are not the droids you are looking for...