Meet the Super Bowl's official Twitter hashtag

(Credit: NFL.com)

Forget Ashton and Oprah. This is how you know Twitter's really broken into the mainstream: The NFL has launched a page of aggregated tweets pertaining to Sunday's Super Bowl XLIV, and even designated an official hash tag (#SB44) for users to categorize their tweets as Super Bowl-related.

NFL.com's "Tag The Super Bowl" page aggregates both Twitter posts and Flickr photos that are accompanied by the hash tag, though it notes that photos taken inside stadiums must comply with photography regulations printed on the back of the ticket, which prohibit distributing "game action" photos. One can only assume that tweets are rather filtered, given the propensity for passionate sports fans to speak ill of the opposing team in colorful terms.

The NFL actually has a complicated history with Twitter. The league has banned players from tweeting during a game--much to the dismay of Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco, whose Twitter account has over 700,000 followers. Some individual teams have cracked down further on players' usage of the service.

As for fans, though, the NFL is encouraging them to tweet all they want--and there will likely be even more media frenzy, considering this will be the first-ever Super Bowl for the New Orleans Saints.

[Stormspace]

Yeah, prolly so they can delay the publishing of the tweets. ;)

[Cipolo]

I have to admit I feel an incredible amount of frustration participating in anything the Official Super Bowl gatekeepers suggest I do. Maybe I just read too much Slashdot...but they have become fixed in my mind as the old guard-turned-bully trying to pimp Web 2.0 without any respect or deference to the Internet community of bloggers, obnoxious commenters on blogs, silly cartoons/websites praising or mocking NFL related topics, (etc.).

This is the first year I've had very little interest in participating. We're having friends over and playing games, hanging out, etc. I'd tell you we're calling it (tongue in cheek) "The Big Game (party)" but I guess I'd be opening myself up for litigation. Blech.

Thanks for letting me rant!

Michael

[hemoscnet]

Hah -- ironically, as one of the founders of Slashdot, I can doubly confirm your feelings. The issue with content gatekeepers is one that I try to summarize as thus: They are building stuff that *they* want people to want -- not what it is people actually want.

Usually, I use that as an analogy for some of the advertising efforts in the online world, but works just as well in this case.

[stephsfo]

Check real-time updates on Superbowl 2010 at http://bit.ly/spbowl #superbowl

[MarkjMayhew]

#whodat say they gonna beat them Saints? #sb44