Twitter’s Terms of Service Allows Ads? Oh My!

According to the Twitter Terms of Service, just updated this week:

“The Services may include advertisements, which may be targeted to the Content or information on the Services, queries made through the Services, or other information. The types and extent of advertising by Twitter on the Services are subject to change. In consideration for Twitter granting you access to and use of the Services, you agree that Twitter and its third party providers and partners may place such advertising on the Services or in connection with the display of Content or information from the Services whether submitted by you or others.”

What? Allowing ads on the service? Twitter, say it isn’t so. This won’t really affect those that use third-party clients, such as TweetDeck, Seesmic and DestroyTwitter (unless the powers that be decide to inject them into your tweet stream, which will surely kill the service). But anyone visiting the webpage to post (like I do from time to time) will surely be bombarded with advertising.

A la Facebook?

I hope not.

Say Hello to Twitter, Fortune 50

I love how big businesses, especially in the Fortune 50 set, are starting to “get the hint” when it comes to social media.

For too long, large corporations have shunned new media in favor of more traditional methods (television, print, and radio). The larger the company, the more they cannot afford to miss the opportunities that social media offers such as:

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La Russa Claims Twitter Not Playing Ball

What do you do when someone makes a fake social networking page about you, posting what you believe to be defamatory statements to your character? Why, you sue Twitter of course!

At least that’s what Tony La Russa, manager of the St. Louis Cardinals is doing. LaRussa, who operates ARF – Animal Rescue Foundation – believes that the comments posted by the anonymous account holder are so defamatory they’ve negatively impacted his name and branding – something he considers his trademark. In turn, he has filed suit against Twitter claiming they denied him the opportunity to have the account pulled from the site and reclaim his good name. According to the tort complaint filed in Superior Court of California, Mr. La Russa is suing for general damages for injury to his trademark (his name), damages for emotional distress and mental anguish, order barring Twitter from the use of his mark and takedown of the account, attorney’s fees and costs, and exemplary damages.

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My tech thought for the day…

It’s amazing that people use to complain about the drawback of email not being in realtime and how it could “stiffle” a conversation.

Then somebody invented instant messaging, and realtime communication was born. Alas, immediate communication with your subject was possible and information could be conducted at the speed of light.

Then Twitter came along… some people use it for “real-time” communication, but if you think about it, it’s almost the opposite of IM’s. Sometimes slow, you don’t always receive an immediate response, sometimes your message gets lost in the flow of things, and you can never tell the other person’s status.

Discuss here.