Will the official Twitter button mean the end for Tweetmeme?

Breaking news out of Silicon Valley this morning is that Twitter will be launching its own Tweet button towards the end of this week.

In what seems to be a direct threat to the core business of Tweetmeme, Twitter announced a simple line of code that could be added to any website which enables that site to carry an official embedded Tweet button.

Internet news blog Mashable reports that details are still sketchy, but “from what we can tell, the Tweet Button is designed to be the most comprehensive counter of retweets and shares across Twitter’s network.”

In much the same way that Facebook Share buttons allow you to spread the content you like across your network of friends, Tweetmeme is a “service that aggregates all the popular links on Twitter to determine which links are popular.” According to Techradar, “Twitter is hoping that its official button will be the most accurate yet, offering precise numbers of those who have retweeted articles online.”

Could it be a signal that Twitter is actively looking to consolidate all it’s functionality under one roof? If so, then the future looks increasingly bleak for third-party companies who leverage the popularity of Twitter.