The difference is in the purpose of the platform. Google ads make perfect sense because people are searching for something, and the ads are there to help them with a decision. I see Google Adwords as the equivalent of me walking into store to shop, and someone walks up and says “I know what you are looking for here is a suggestion”. I see Twitter ads as someone walks up to you in a Starbucks while you are chatting with a friend and trying to sell you sweater because they overheard you say a sentence with the word “Sweater” in it. Under that veil I’d say that if ads were displayed when using search.Twitter.com then it would be appropriate. So yes display ads when people are searching. But the ads are there when people are just having a conversation. I can’t fight it 🙂 I just hope it gets better. And I believe the platform is going to have to evolve for the advertising to be more relevant.

While I agree that keyword targeting is not a perfect solution, it is certainly a step in the right direction. Think of it as the early days of Adwords. Twitter is finally giving some slightly more precise keyword targeting that mirrors keyword matching on adwords. I wouldn’t say that Adwords is a perfect strategy either, but it turns a massive profit and doesn’t seem to be too incredibly disruptive to the user experience (considering virtually everyone in the world still uses Google search).

I also agree that the purpose of Google and the purpose of Twitter vary a bit, but Twitter is also used for search and discovery. When a user moves into that pattern of use, I’d say this ad format is awesome.

It is great to see a response like this from a Twitter user and consumer. Nice to see that you understand advertising both supports the service and provides tremendous value for advertisers. Thanks.