The latest tit-for-tat move between Twitter and Facebook–Twitter’s official Tweet button. We reported on the feature yesterday, but Twitter has confirmed the new feature this morning.

For an example of how the new Tweet button works, check out some custom options from launch partner ShareThis. It’s a great way for publishers to include the new Twitter offering in their bundle of sharing options on their sites.

We also mentioned the potential the new Tweet button would have for brands seeking more ways to integrate with Twitter, especially as it will aggregate and make more linear paths for third parties to follow when it comes to relevant, measurable Twitter activity. It appears to be another step in the right direction for Twitter, as it builds more business practices around its microblogging tool.

As with many of Twitter’s other recent upgrades, the new Tweet button could also be bad news for existing aggregators and analytics tools, such as Tweetmeme. Twitter has squeezed out many of its third-party developers in taking over the features and services they’ve provided. Filling in their own gaps, however, could also mean more acquisitions for the growing company. John Furrier comments,

“Twitter is clearly shoring up their platform and filling in the key holes that they want. It is trouble for Tweetmeme with this announcement. If a company has traction on Twitter, they better figure out how to get critical mass so that Twitter can buy them. Otherwise they will be eaten alive. Startups or developers either need to build a plan that generates revenue or one that provides an exit via acquisition to Twitter or Facebook. It is no wonder that venture capitalists are not into investing into Twitter deals.

The issue for Twitter is to balance the requirements for their platform features and the user experience gains that a developer community can provide. If Twitter gets this wrong then their ecosystem will turn on them”.

This is a message that Twitter itself expressed, when concern began to bubble around its official mobile apps on the iPhone, BlackBerry and Android operating systems. Looking at the larger structure of where Twitter may be headed as a business, third parties don’t have to be left out in the dark. Twitter is trying to serve its brands, but it can’t serve all of their needs.

A couple of features included in the new Tweet tool hint at Twitter’s direction, including possible recommendations on other users to follow. This is a feature Twitter has added to its primary site, and it would be cunning for Twitter to include such a feature through other portals to its service (who uses Twitter’s website?). Generating more social activity around its sharing mechanisms is a natural progression, and one that encourages user engagement. Another bonus for brands and website publishers.

This is a concept Facebook has already latched onto, with its Like button and widget for Fans. Facebook has tweaked the algorithm to show Fans that you’re likely to know, increasing the likelihood that it will catch your eye and you, too, will join the group.

If Twitter’s smart, they’ll stick to the basics of aggregating activity around shared content, and making it social for commenting and sharing purposes. Many have said that Twitter will become the future RSS reader, and its mainstream appeal certainly has the ability to make it an organized media consumption tool for widespread users. So layering in too many social and other frivolous features would take away from Twitter’s streamlined approach in this regard, leaving it with a big mess to clean up, offering a myriad of custom and privacy settings [that’s you, Facebook].

Twitter does a few things well, and it should focus on those things. In order to compete with Facebook for brand appeal and advertising monetization, it will need to focus its intentions on its core concepts for content dissemination, inviting brands to simply and measurably communicate with customers, as directly as possible.