6 ms·

Twitter Bans In-Stream Ads

41 points by percept 16y ago

aresant 16y ago
Not that it needs to be said, but this is exactly why building on top of somebody else's platform - where policies like this are a work in progress - can be a very bad idea . . .
- jarin 16y ago
  Totally true, that's why you're better off building your own Twitter or Facebook to support your advertising efforts.
  - jrockway 16y ago
    I know you're being sarcastic, but I like this idea a lot. Imagine a world where the advertising companies would have to build roads if they want to put up billboards, instead of the current world, where anyone can visually shit all over anything, and you're just forced to look at it. I like the precedent Twitter is setting.
    - Groxx 16y ago
      I dunno, I don't think I like the idea of a strictly-advertising-company owning the medium a huge amount of people communicate on. Can you imagine the TOS / privacy policy? Granted, that's what Facebook appears to be becoming... but I'm off that for good. And I too like how Twitter is handling this. Promoted tweets seem like the right setup for users, as you effectively have to request the ad to get it, but it's easier to find (and you know they're legit).
      - hugh3 16y ago
        I dunno, I don't think I like the idea of a strictly-advertising-company owning the medium a huge amount of people communicate on. You mean like gmail?
        Groxx 16y ago
        Pretty much, yes, and +1 for a good catch :) But Google's been rather tried-and-true on issues like this (for most people's opinions), and they were first a crawler, and second an advertiser, even if they make most of their money from it now. They make that money because they made a great product. This implies their motivations are at least somewhat removed from a "lets start an ad platform!" company.
jhuckestein 16y ago
This sounds worse than it is. You can share revenues with twitter on the promoted tweets. And I agree that displaying ads "in-stream" can be confusing. Promoted tweets make more sense.
ptomato 16y ago
I should note that this makes the Mac version of the twitter client twitter just acquired violate their terms of service.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- aheilbut 16y ago
  It's not clear to me whether they are simply banning the insertion of paid tweets via the API, or they're saying that you can't put ads (which are not tweets) in the same area of a UI in which a timeline of tweets is being displayed.
Groxx 16y ago
Sucks for advertisers, but sounds like a plus for users. I like their "promoted tweets" concept better anyway. Go Twitter!
minouye 16y ago
Does anyone know what this means for affiliate links in tweets? Are they only going after big players like Ad.ly, or is this touching everyone?
jfornear 16y ago
It looks to me like they are only trying to prevent third parties from cluttering the official stream with third-party paid tweets. Not really anything for developers to get riled up about.
kadavy 16y ago
Banning in-stream ads right out seems a bit drastic. They could instead develop standards for in-stream ads that prevent confusion.
korch 16y ago
What is an Ad? Can I tweet that I drink Pepsi if Coke is today's official Twitter sponsor? We all can see where this leads. No doubt Twitter doesn't want to a become plain, old, boring ad sponsor. Like on TV. Or like Facebook. They really should do more to create entirely new types of ads, which most people would not even consider as being an ad.
johnl 16y ago
Making a firm decision like this as to what the Twitter customer wants seems like a bad idea in my opinion. I would have rather have seen Twitter create a preference check box allowing those who want ads to have them, and set 3rd party ad policy for Twitter to share in the revenue. Twitter is far from having a secure source of income so killing instead of controlling early revenue sources doesn't seem like a good idea.
CountSessine 16y ago
This is the first step in charging for this themselves. You'll be able to advertise with Twitter - just don't think you'll be able to do it without giving Twitter themselves a cut.
swivelmaster 16y ago
Scrolling quickly, I misread the title as "Twitter to Stream In-Brain Ads" The future is now!

41 points by percept 16y ago

Not that it needs to be said, but this is exactly why building on top of somebody else's platform - where policies like this are a work in progress - can be a very bad idea . . .

jarin 16y ago
Totally true, that's why you're better off building your own Twitter or Facebook to support your advertising efforts.
- jrockway 16y ago
  I know you're being sarcastic, but I like this idea a lot. Imagine a world where the advertising companies would have to build roads if they want to put up billboards, instead of the current world, where anyone can visually shit all over anything, and you're just forced to look at it. I like the precedent Twitter is setting.
  - Groxx 16y ago
    I dunno, I don't think I like the idea of a strictly-advertising-company owning the medium a huge amount of people communicate on. Can you imagine the TOS / privacy policy? Granted, that's what Facebook appears to be becoming... but I'm off that for good. And I too like how Twitter is handling this. Promoted tweets seem like the right setup for users, as you effectively have to request the ad to get it, but it's easier to find (and you know they're legit).
    - hugh3 16y ago
      I dunno, I don't think I like the idea of a strictly-advertising-company owning the medium a huge amount of people communicate on. You mean like gmail?
      - Groxx 16y ago
        Pretty much, yes, and +1 for a good catch :) But Google's been rather tried-and-true on issues like this (for most people's opinions), and they were first a crawler, and second an advertiser, even if they make most of their money from it now. They make that money because they made a great product. This implies their motivations are at least somewhat removed from a "lets start an ad platform!" company.

jhuckestein 16y ago

This sounds worse than it is. You can share revenues with twitter on the promoted tweets. And I agree that displaying ads "in-stream" can be confusing. Promoted tweets make more sense.

ptomato 16y ago

I should note that this makes the Mac version of the twitter client twitter just acquired violate their terms of service.

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
aheilbut 16y ago
It's not clear to me whether they are simply banning the insertion of paid tweets via the API, or they're saying that you can't put ads (which are not tweets) in the same area of a UI in which a timeline of tweets is being displayed.

Groxx 16y ago

Sucks for advertisers, but sounds like a plus for users. I like their "promoted tweets" concept better anyway. Go Twitter!

minouye 16y ago

Does anyone know what this means for affiliate links in tweets? Are they only going after big players like Ad.ly, or is this touching everyone?

jfornear 16y ago

It looks to me like they are only trying to prevent third parties from cluttering the official stream with third-party paid tweets. Not really anything for developers to get riled up about.

kadavy 16y ago

Banning in-stream ads right out seems a bit drastic. They could instead develop standards for in-stream ads that prevent confusion.

korch 16y ago

What is an Ad? Can I tweet that I drink Pepsi if Coke is today's official Twitter sponsor? We all can see where this leads. No doubt Twitter doesn't want to a become plain, old, boring ad sponsor. Like on TV. Or like Facebook. They really should do more to create entirely new types of ads, which most people would not even consider as being an ad.

johnl 16y ago

Making a firm decision like this as to what the Twitter customer wants seems like a bad idea in my opinion. I would have rather have seen Twitter create a preference check box allowing those who want ads to have them, and set 3rd party ad policy for Twitter to share in the revenue. Twitter is far from having a secure source of income so killing instead of controlling early revenue sources doesn't seem like a good idea.

CountSessine 16y ago

This is the first step in charging for this themselves. You'll be able to advertise with Twitter - just don't think you'll be able to do it without giving Twitter themselves a cut.

swivelmaster 16y ago

Scrolling quickly, I misread the title as "Twitter to Stream In-Brain Ads" The future is now!