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Twitter To Start Selling Followers

Posted by Soulskill on from the supply-would-seem-to-far-outstrip-demand dept.

Ellie K writes "While not quite as bad as it sounds, Twitter will soon be identifying followers with certain interests based on the content of their Twitter usage, and then providing this info to advertisers. Twitter is already selling sponsored Tweets for $100K or more. These reader comments captured the disquieting feeling I have: 'Twitter selling followers? Will that be the same as Google selling top position in SERP?' and 'I wonder when Facebook will start to sell friends.' Advertisers will be allowed to purchase placement in lists of 'who to follow' recommendations targeted to users with particular interests on Twitter."

2 of 95 comments (clear)

  1. We'll be right back after this promoted content. by LostCluster · · Score: 5, Informative

    Google has been clear they've never sold search position, PageRank is their secret sauce for making search as good as it is, and they don't corrupt it with ads. They do, however, allow content-targeted ads to appear next to the search results but have always been clear to label what's an ad and what's content on the page.

    Twitter's the same way. Every type of paid ad they've allowed gets marked as "promoted" which is their word for "sponsored" or "They paid to be next to the free content we just gave you."

  2. Re:Sorry, Slashdot doesn't understand APIs. by martin-boundary · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Okay, this is a trend that Slashdot has been a little slow to adopt so it's understandable the editors don't understand it fully.

    That actually makes slashdot one of the good guys. That trend is AWFUL, and there's no good reason for slashdot to follow it.