Twitter is planning to tie advertising to searches made on its microblogging platform, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal's All Things Digital.
Similar to Google's Adwords, Twitter users who - for example - search for 'mobile phone' may be shown adverts for firms like Vodafone, T-Mobile, O2 and their competitors.
And like individual 'tweets' posted by users, adverts on the platform will be restricted to 140 characters or fewer.
However, at the outset, the Twitter advertising programme will differ from Google's in one important respect – while AdWords is a self service offering, Twitter will initially work with ad agencies and buyers. It's hoped that this approach will give the scheme a foothold in the market.
At the moment, the plans are very broad brush, and not much detail has been revealed. But one things for certain – if Twitter advertising takes off, it'll be a useful new arena for businesses that presently use pay per click (PPC) advertising.
