Qwikster Isn't the First Company to Lose its Twitter Identity

But is @Qwikster still the king of comedy?

This week, Netflix

got into a bit of trouble when it used a

to advertise its new DVD-by-mail service, Qwikster. But our initial

were quickly replaced by

when it was revealed that Netflix had failed to secure the

Twitter name. After doing a quick search, however, it's clear that Netflix isn't the only company that has failed to secure an important account in social media.

- While AOL

successfully secured the @AOL address, the company missed the boat in acquiring the firm's second most common search term. Consequently, @AmericaOnline is controlled by a guy spreading spam. (Official Twitter:

)

- Take-Two Interactive

can take comfort in knowing one thing: while @TakeTwo is indeed a spam zone,

is following this account. Oddly, the company does not appear to own or operate the Twitter name that matches its own website URL:

. As a result,

has become a bit of a dead zone with only one tweet. (Official Twitter:

and

)

- With more than 100,000 followers, it's clear that the official AT&T

Twitter account,

, is doing just fine. But the former, @ATandT, is a dead account that appears to have been created with the sole purpose of mocking AT&T's wireless service. “@Nguyen Are you saying you don't like our wireless service?” @ATandT wrote on August 13, 2009. “If you keep dropping calls maybe you should move closer to the tower.” (Official Twitter:

)

- Considering that social networking has been around longer than the Smart car, Daimler knew it couldn't count on the availability of this simple Twitter name. Fortunately, it belongs to Steve Martocci, the co-founder of

, the messaging service that Skype acquired in August.

- Smart got lucky when 451s.com members acquired this account for the purpose of proliferating their love of the brand. (Official Twitter:

)

- While it is wholly possible that General Motors

owns this stagnant page, the site owner has yet to tweet a single message. But @GeneralMotors has still managed to acquire 99 followers, likely because of its name. (Official Twitter:

)

- This box office research and prediction company uses social media to gauge the

of upcoming films. But since @Fizziology was already taken, the company had to choose another name. (Official Twitter:

)

While their ownership remains unclear, the following official-sounding Twitter accounts are dead zones:

As of this writing, @Qwikster has not tweeted in two days. Does this mean that Hollywood has finally scooped him up with the hope of turning him into

? Or has Netflix secretly jumped in and acquired his account?