TweetUp to Tweak Twitter Searches, Generate Ad Revenue

Linc Wonham
by Linc Wonham 12 Apr, 2010

TweetUp, a new patent-pending platform that combines the popularity, relevance and influence of tweets and tweeters with a bid-based marketplace, is bringing search advertising to Twitter. An auction-based system that will allow advertisers to bid to have their tweets displayed when users search for keywords, TweetUp gives the most important tweets the distinction they deserve.

"For most people, 80 percent or more of the tweets that fly by them when they're searching for something are useless noise," said Bill Gross, founder and CEO of TweetUp. "For serious tweeters, the task of attracting interested and relevant followers is equally daunting. TweetUp will change all of that."

Pioneering Internet entrepreneur Gross comes from IdeaLab, for whom he conceived the first model for paid search, Overture/Goto.com, back in the nineties. Then, like now, the goal was to create a business model that would both improve the relevance of search results and enable a steady revenue stream for publishers.

In TweetUp, he has come up with a Twitter marketplace designed to showcase the world's best tweeters and enable them to grow a highly targeted following. An algorithm that combines a variety of factors to determine relevance will push the best tweets to the top of the results of users' searches. Major partners, including leading Twitter search clients and top websites, will display the results, enabling users to easily find the best tweets and tweeters in the world.