Report: Twitter deep into talks to purchase TweetDeck

Twitter is in advanced talks to acquire social networking management solutions provider TweetDeck for about $50 million. The Wall Street Journal reports Twitter is targeting TweetDeck in an effort to simplify its microblogging services and broaden the appeal of its platform for both new and existing users. TweetDeck effectively serves as a personalized browser spanning across a user's social networks and contacts, offering customization tools to simplify tweeting and sharing photos, videos and links. Twitter declined to comment; TweetDeck CEO Iain Dodsworth could not be reached.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Twitter's plans to enhance its overall appeal include welcoming new users with tweets from individuals in their specific geographic region, in part to dispel the image that the platform serves as little more than a soapbox for celebrities to broadcast their opinions.

"Most people understand Twitter exists, but they don't understand what Twitter is and how they can participate," said Jonathan Strauss, CEO of social network tracking firm Awe.sm. Strauss argues that Twitter must attract more mainstream Internet users if it wants to justify its multibillion-dollar valuation--in addition, the firm is working to develop tools to create a narrower stream of the most relevant tweets.

Twitter recently asserted that about 90 percent of users now access the microblogging service via the company's official applications, but social media analytics firm Sysomos reported last month that applications created by independent developers in fact account for 42 percent of tweets, more than four times the total claimed by Twitter. Based on a sample of 25 million tweets posted on March 11, the official Twitter.com app yielded 35.4 percent of all tweets, followed by Twitter for iPhone at 8.8 percent and Twitter for BlackBerry at 5.5 percent; TweetDeck, UberSocial and Echofon led among unofficial apps.

"So, what's the disconnect between Twitter's 90 percent claim and our data analysis that shows Twitter only has 58 percent market share?" Sysomos asks. "Here's how the gap can be explained. Twitter's number focus on the total number of users while our analysis looked at total tweets. It means there may be many Twitter 'official' users who are not very active. On the other hand, more enthusiastic and power users are using non-official services such as TweetDeck, UberSocial and Seesmic. This is not much of a surprise given many of these applications have many more features than Twitter.com despite recent improvements."

UberMedia, the startup behind applications like UberSocial, Echofon and Twidroyd, is reportedly building its own service to compete with the popular microblogging platform as tensions between Twitter and its developer partners continue to escalate. Citing sources briefed on UberMedia's plans, CNN.com reported last week that the firm is pitching a microblogging service that promises to lure users by addressing the most common complaints dogging the Twitter platform--for example, eliminating the 140-character limits of Twitter posts and creating a more intuitive and accessible user experience.

For more:
- read this Wall Street Journal article

Related articles:
Report: App maker UberMedia plotting Twitter platform rival
Study: Third-party Twitter clients generate 42 percent of tweets
Twitter declares war on third-party client apps
Google, Facebook target Twitter takeover
Twitter valuation rises to $3.7 billion