Promoted Tweets and the API?

[Tim]

I've been looking around for information on how the new "promoted
tweets" advertising feature will affect the API, and I've not really
found anything. I gather that it's a two phase approach starting with
search and then rolling out to timelines, but can anyone here
clarify:
(a) whether API responses will include promoted tweets,
(b) whether these tweets will be identified as ads
(c) whether third parties are 'obligated' to present them to users
(d) whether there will be an API Terms of Use as a result

[Duane Roelands]

I'm curious about this myself. One of the first things end users are
going to ask for is a way to block these ads from their timelines.
Don't kid yourself; there's a reason why AdBlock is such a popular
Firefox plugin.

Secondary question: Is the first step towards paid Twitter accounts,
where free users have to receive ads and paid users do not? Straight
answers here would be appreciated.

[Raffi Krikorian]

the announcements are only slowly coming out -- there will be a lot more details over the next few days through Chirp. 

as we move forward, as always, we'll message out to the developer list as features get deployed onto the platform / API.

--
Raffi Krikorian
Twitter Platform Team
http://twitter.com/raffi

[Nigel Legg]

Is "promotion" of tweets going to be part of the algorithm for defining "popular" tweets - in a twisted world where twitter says it's popular coz they've taken the cash to say it's popular? [sorry, that sounds like rigging charts or something... not quite how I meant it to sound]
Awaiting further details.

[zn...@comcast.net]

People - please please please - if you are not going to be at Chirp, please please please post all of your questions about this (and everything else) to the Google Moderator site, so we can be sure they get on the agenda!

http://www.google.com/moderator/#16/e=5c0f

[Dewald Pretorius]

Don't be too hasty with that ad blocking code.

1) It sounds as if Twitter will share ad revenue with external apps.

2) It very well might be against (new) API TOS to use the API and
block ads (I would do that if I were them).

> > (d) whether there will be an API Terms of Use as a result- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Nigel Legg]

At present, search is not on my radar as an API I want to use in development, but I am concerned about the implications for monitoring services based on the search API.

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[Duane Roelands]

The lack of response to this is pretty discouraging.

On 13 Apr, 05:28, Tim <fabianh...@googlemail.com> wrote:

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[Abraham Williams]

(Running from memory of an information filled conference)

On Tue, Apr 13, 2010 at 02:28, Tim <fabia...@googlemail.com> wrote:

I've been looking around for information on how the new "promoted
tweets" advertising feature will affect the API, and I've not really
found anything. I gather that it's a two phase approach starting with
search and then rolling out to timelines, but can anyone here
clarify:
(a) whether API responses will include promoted tweets,

Eventually but not yet.

 

(b) whether these tweets will be identified as ads

They will be identified as promoted and  it will be required to differentiate them from non-promoted tweets.

 

(c) whether third parties are 'obligated' to present them to users

It will be opt in per application.

 

(d) whether there will be an API Terms of Use as a result

There already is. When registering apps on dev.twitter.com you have to accept a TOS.

 

Abraham

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PoseurTech Labs | Projects | http://labs.poseurtech.com
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[escarp]

On Apr 17, 5:47 pm, Abraham Williams <4bra...@gmail.com> wrote:
> (Running from memory of an information filled conference)
>

> On Tue, Apr 13, 2010 at 02:28, Tim <fabianh...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> > I've been looking around for information on how the new "promoted
> > tweets" advertising feature will affect the API, and I've not really
> > found anything. I gather that it's a two phase approach starting with
> > search and then rolling out to timelines, but can anyone here
> > clarify:
> > (a) whether API responses will include promoted tweets,
>
> Eventually but not yet.
>
> > (b) whether these tweets will be identified as ads
>
> They will be identified as promoted and  it will be required to
> differentiate them from non-promoted tweets.
>
> > (c) whether third parties are 'obligated' to present them to users
>
> It will be opt in per application.

Do you know if those of us making small uses of the API (for example,
most of our site runs off of the API, but we aren't an application in
the sense that we perform actions on behalf of users via the API) have
to register at dev. to be able to avoid being automatically opted in
at some point?

Also, do you know how much agency we have in where promoted tweets
appear? (Is placement determined automatically by keywords in the
tweets, or are we allowed to pick? Likewise, are we penalized (as per
AdWords) for electing to appear for a search or keyword if an
algorithm can't see it's relevance, or will the up/down system be
entirely based on how users respond to what we've elected to promote?)

Our primary interest here is that we might be able to use the system
to promote the work of the writers we publish, but literature isn't
really a keyword-dense affair. A poem doesn't say it's a poem, for
example--it just is one--so if we promoted a "poem" we'd want it to
appear under searches for "poems" rather than searches for "apples"
just because it has the word apples in it.

[Raffi Krikorian]

Do you know if those of us making small uses of the API (for example,
most of our site runs off of the API, but we aren't an application in
the sense that we perform actions on behalf of users via the API) have
to register at dev. to be able to avoid being automatically opted in
at some point?

Also, do you know how much agency we have in where promoted tweets
appear? (Is placement determined automatically by keywords in the
tweets, or are we allowed to pick? Likewise, are we penalized (as per
AdWords) for electing to appear for a search or keyword if an
algorithm can't see it's relevance, or will the up/down system be
entirely based on how users respond to what we've elected to promote?)

its too early to know answers to either of these questions -- the promoted tweets program just started, and i suspect it will be a few months before we get to the syndication phase of the program.

[M. Edward (Ed) Borasky]

All I want at this point in the Promoted Tweets development cycle is the
ability to recognize that a tweet has been promoted when I see one come
out of the API, whether it's from REST, Search or Streaming.

--
M. Edward (Ed) Borasky
borasky-research.net/m-edward-ed-borasky

"A mathematician is a device for turning coffee into theorems." ~ Paul Erdős

[Cameron Kaiser]

> > its too early to know answers to either of these questions -- the promoted
> > tweets program just started, and i suspect it will be a few months before we
> > get to the syndication phase of the program.
>
> All I want at this point in the Promoted Tweets development cycle is the
> ability to recognize that a tweet has been promoted when I see one come
> out of the API, whether it's from REST, Search or Streaming.

What he said.

--
------------------------------------ personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ --
Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * cka...@floodgap.com
-- Never send a human to do a machine's job. -- "The Matrix" ------------------

[M. Edward (Ed) Borasky]

On 04/18/2010 10:57 AM, Cameron Kaiser wrote:
>>> its too early to know answers to either of these questions -- the promoted
>>> tweets program just started, and i suspect it will be a few months before we
>>> get to the syndication phase of the program.
>>
>> All I want at this point in the Promoted Tweets development cycle is the
>> ability to recognize that a tweet has been promoted when I see one come
>> out of the API, whether it's from REST, Search or Streaming.
>
> What he said.
>

Although ... in playing around with searches for Starbucks, it looks
like "promotion" is being done only in one specific case: I am logged in
to Twitter.com and do a search for some specific things in the search
box on the right of the page. I haven't gotten a Promoted Tweet from the
search on the main Twitter page when I'm logged out or from
search.twitter.com, even though I am using the same query.

So I'm guessing the only way to "see" a Promoted Tweet from the API at
the moment would be:

1. Find a search that gives you a Promoted Tweet.
2. Save it.
3. Re-activate the saved search from the API.

Anyone from Twitter want to comment? It's starting to look to me like
Promoted Tweets is being done outside the API for now.

Given what I know about on line marketing and analytics, I'm not
entirely convinced it's in Twitter's interest to answer my questions
here. But I can ask. ;-)

--
M. Edward (Ed) Borasky
borasky-research.net/m-edward-ed-borasky

"A mathematician is a device for turning coffee into theorems." ~ Paul Erdős

[Cameron Kaiser]

> Anyone from Twitter want to comment? It's starting to look to me like
> Promoted Tweets is being done outside the API for now.

TTBOMK promotweets *are* outside of the API (there is no syndication), but I
would like to know about the proposed methods for marking them so that they
can already be dealt with in TTYtter when promotweets hit the wider API world.

--
------------------------------------ personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ --
Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * cka...@floodgap.com

-- What the large print giveth, the small print taketh away. ------------------

[Raffi Krikorian]

i'm fairly positive we'll be doing that - just like how you can see in the web UI right now a clear marking that the tweet has been promoted.

[Raffi Krikorian]

it was stated fairly clearly and plainly by @dickc at @chirp that promoted tweets would be iterated upon inside the web view first. there is going to be a second and third "phase" of the program -- one of which involves "syndication" (i.e. have promoted tweets appear in the API).

[Raffi Krikorian]

we don't know yet - when we do, we'll be giving far advance notice in the form of a developer preview, and probably even in bigger ways.