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We've been curious about how Twitter plans to make money off its services, and this weekend our questions were answered with one word: the dickbar. In-stream advertising has finally landed on the official Twitter iPhone app, and users will now see a top-mounted bar that shows "promoted" hashtags sponsored by advertisers who pay for the distraction.

The problem with these ads isn't that they're obtrusive or that Twitter CEO Dick Costolo initially told us they would be "organic to the platform," but that they're not specifically targeted at users, which makes sense because people use Twitter for a million different applications.

During this conversation, Wilson also reveals that he actually clicks on Google ads when he's shopping for things like headphones or, say, a house. I guess Jeff and I are so astonished at this because we're always looking for the quickest, easiest way to get rid of the annoying pop-ups.

The Gallup Healthways Well-Being Index shows, via statistical analysis of interviews with adults, that the happiest man in America is Alvin Wong: a tall, Asian-American, observant Jewish man who's at least 65 years old, married with children, lives in Hawaii, runs his own business, and has a combined annual household income of at least $120k.

We certainly have a long way to go before we achieve pure bliss!

Apple rejected the controversial iBoobs application back… Read more

Your Facebook content may soon find its way into ads on the social network.

Facebook unveiled details yesterday about a new advertising initiative called Sponsored Stories. The effort allows advertisers to find mentions of their brands--either through Places check-ins, recommendations in a news feed, likes, or actions in a Facebook application--and repurpose them as advertisements on the site.

Facebook said that if a person currently checks in at a respective company's store or "likes" a brand page, the action often gets lost amid all the other content a user's friends may see. Sponsored Stories solves that … Read more

Google updated AdSense this week, adding desktop-style ad support for high-end smartphones like the iPhone 3GS. The change led to Google's insertion of advertisements, alongside search results, into the iPhone Maps application.

Local iPhone map searches now display sponsored listings in the view and list modes of the Maps app.

We discovered examples of these ads on Monday, while searching for a Verizon Wireless store. We should also note that this is the first time ads have appeared within one of the iPhone's default apps, rather than in something we've downloaded for free or purchased from the App Store. Our search for "Verizon" resulted in the following list view:

Tapping the white arrow in the top blue circle brought us to the "Sponsored Link" screen, which contained some additional information about the business under its name emphasized in italics, such as phone number, Web address, and physical address. In addition, there are options to get directions to or from the business, add it to one's contacts, share it with others, or bookmark it.

… Read more

Memo to Twitter: If you're really going to be making money with sponsored direct messages, as a New York Times article hints, please make sure it doesn't get annoying.

Twitter investor Todd Chaffee of Institutional Venture Partners told the Times that "e-commerce, including links to products and turnkey payment mechanisms, is a likely revenue stream for Twitter." That's not too surprising. Some companies have touted real success with Twitter-only deals: electronics manufacturer Dell, for example, says it's racked up a few million in sales. Airlines JetBlue and Southwest sometimes advertise special fares on Twitter. … Read more

Intel's "rock star" ads will try to show that Intel is more than just microprocessors--a theme of its broader ad campaign to launch on Monday.

One of the first Internet-based ads focuses on Ajay Bhatt, an Intel Fellow who was one of the principal engineers behind the development of USB, a crucial Intel technology used in virtually all PCs today. (Intel engineers in the ads are personified by hired actors. "Several of the engineers we're personifying confided that acting isn't within their comfort zone," said Sandra Lopez, Intel's global consumer marketing manager … Read more

Lenovo used a boatload of resources to win the contest to design the Olympic torch for this summer's Games, and what's the world's reaction? Derision and anger.

Of course, it has nothing to do with Lenovo or the torch design and everything to do with China's human rights record, its crackdown on protesters in Tibet, and its ongoing support of Sudan's government.

The Wall Street Journal takes a look at how Lenovo's $100 million-plus marketing blitz as one of the official sponsors of the Games held in its own backyard could actually be a … Read more

SouthWest NanoTechnologies, a manufacturer of carbon nanotubes, has licensed NEC patents relating to the tiny cylinders made of lattices of carbon atoms, NEC said Thursday. Sumio Iijima, an NEC researcher, discovered carbon nanotubes in 1991, and NEC is working to profit from the work.

"NEC's carbon nanotube patents are basic patents covering single and multi-walled carbon nanotubes, and licenses under our patents are essential for entities to manufacture or sell carbon nanotubes. We are currently in negotiations with a number of entities worldwide who require a license from us under our patent rights," said Keiji Ushijima of … Read more

Oracle late Monday put an end to the bidding war with SAP for retail software maker Retek. The database software giant offered $11.25 for each outstanding Retek share and said that SAP had dropped out of the bidding. SAP last Thursday had upped its bid to $11, from its initial offer of $8.50 per share.

Why the fuss over Retek? Both Oracle and SAP see the retail market as one of the few fertile areas left in the enterprise software market, worth perhaps $10 billion. Analysts say many retailers, which have lagged their counterparts in other industries in … Read more

Business software giant SAP, looking to broaden the appeal of its software, is set to launch a community development program to attract coders to its NetWeaver integration tool.

This spring, the company intends to publish a software development kit to help outside application providers tap into its products. The idea is to encourage partners to build on top of SAP's business software, potentially broadening its appeal.

The move could generate revenue for SAP and increase its influence in the software industry. But the German giant has yet to prove it can be a beneficial partner, analysts say.