Can't say I'm a fan of having Twitter's attempt at monetizing itself, the recently launched "Promoted Tweets" show up in my stream. A majority of others agree with me. The idea is this: presumably a Coke ad
will appear if you search Twitter for cola or a Paramount Pictures tweet
will show up if you search for one of the studio's latest releases. Only
one promoted tweet will be displayed per search results page. However, if users don't perform some sort of action to re-tweet, favorite, reply, etc., the ad is pulled from the search results.
Ok, I have no problem with this. Google uses this model, it is pretty widely accepted. What I do object to is seeing any such ads appear in my personal stream! That is phase two of this ad network plan, and that's the part that will enrage most Twitter users. Will it do so enough to drive them away from Twitter? It just might. At which time I foresee Twitter pulling that aspect of it. The content stream must be kept pure for Twitter to maintain it's lure. Yeah, I'm a poet and I didn't even know it.
So if you are like me, and resent this horrible, alienating, un-twitter-like sell out concept, please RT this blog. Those Twitter folks are smart, they will stop it before it gets too far, and just keep to the search results version.
