Twitter Found Themselves In A Federal Investigation- Click here http://bit.ly/lG3ngf for full article

Twitter Found Themselves In A Federal Investigation- Click here http://bit.ly/lG3ngf for full article

Microblogging giant Twitter is apparently being investigated by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, for anti-competitive behavior. According to a report by Business Insider last week, the FTC is scrutinizing the manner in which Twitter handles companies that develop third-party services and applications that run on top of Twitter. The investigation was apparently prompted by complaints from Bill Gross, the owner of UberMedia, an online search advertising company.

UberMedia is trying to create an ad-network within the Twitter ecosystem by buying firms that offer third-party services and applications for Twitter. One company that UberMedia wanted to purchase was TweetDeck, according to Business Insider. However, Twitter itself has apparently being trying to actively block companies such as UberMedia from building their own advertising network. Over the past one year, Twitter has been on an aggressive buying spree of its own. It first snapped up Tweetie, and later purchased TweetDeck even as UberMedia was planning to acquire the company.

Twitter also has added image serving capabilities on its networks and revamped its site so that users can now see third-party video and photos in a preview pane on Twitter.com. Twitter has claimed the feature is not designed to prevent people from going to other sites, but to merely give users another option for viewing third-party content.

Twitter has also toyed with banning third-party advertisers. Earlier this year for instance, Twitter banned UberMedia from its services for alleged privacy violations. According to Twitter, UberMedia infringed on their trademark and changed the content of user Tweets in a bid to make money from the Twitter network. UberMedia’s Gross contends that Twitter’s moves are anti-competitive in nature and designed to block legitimate competition within the Twitter ecosystem. He has denied any wrongdoing and claims to have changed the manner in which UberMedia operates within the Twitter network.

The outcome of the alleged federal investigation could have a bearing for Twitter users as well as for developers of third-party applications and services for Twitter. If Twitter is indeed viewed as being anti-competitive, the company could be forced to change its practices so that third-parties can operate more freely within the microblogging ecosystem. However, if the company’s actions are viewed as being legitimate, developers could suddenly find themselves without a business while users could see many current Twitter applications becoming suddenly unavailable.