Twitter MarketingWhat’s happening with all those inactive and deleted usernames that Twitter has? Some of them will continue to be held back for a few more weeks; some likely for much longer, twitter cofounder EV Williams said yesterday.

Releasing inactive, never-used names is easier than those that are have been used but later abandoned. That’s because in the case of abandoned names, someone may want to restart their account again in the future, he said. A bigger issue is what happens if someone has made a few tweets, then gone inactive. Do you delete those tweets in order to release the name back into the wild?

Twitter’s still figuring out the right way to handle the situation, which involves millions of names, he said. But when the names are freed up, don’t expect a Facebook-style landrush announcement. Williams said he’d prefer if they just quietly become available again.