Monday, May 24, 2010

TweetUp Formally Launches Twitter Keywords Bidding Play

Pasadena-based Tweetup, the Internet advertising play of Idealab's Bill Gross, said today that it has formally launched the site. The firm told its members that they are now able to login to the site, and that user profiles are eligible to be displayed as a search result. Tweetup allows Twitter users to bid for the prominence of their tweets in search results on such sites as TechCrunch, Business Insider, and search functionality within Twitter clients such as Seesmic, Tweetdeck, and Twidroid. The firm's services have been billed as an "Overture for Twitter," essentially allowing Twitter users to pay for better placement in search results, based on keyword. Tweetup is venture backed by Index Ventures, betaworks, Revolution LLC, First Round Capital, Jason Calacanis, and Jeff Jarvis.