Twitter says 'no' to advertisements

Online advertisements are a way many Web start-ups can earn revenue, while keeping their membership free. Twitter, an extremely fast-growing microblogging service, is saying "no" to advertisements.

Why is Twitter turning away from ads? Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter, says "There are a few reasons why we're not pursuing advertising -- one is it's just not quite as interesting to us." Secondly, he points out that ads are very likely to annoy users when placed alongside messages.

Twitter is a venture-capital backed company and is only two years old. Although Twitter is seeking ways to earn revenue from its popularity, Stone says the company is not under any pressure to earn money in the near future.

A recent Reuters article reports that at Twitter's current growth rate, they are set to have double-employment by this year's end. Users jumped 83% from March to April this year.

What will Twitter turn to instead? Twitter is focusing on add-on tools for professional and business users. Stone says that some tools will be introduced by year end. The development of new features for commercial users is also a current focus such as "lightweight analytics" and a directory of commercial accounts. Agreements with cell phone carriers are in talks -- in order to make sure Twitter works on their text messaging networks.

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