Continuing its monetization march, Twitter is expanding its advertising inventory with the debut of promoted accounts in its search results.

According to Twitter’s announcement, promoted accounts will be shown alongside recommendations of Twitter users to follow. Twitter is offering advertisers the following example, using a query for “latte art:”

BaristaBar_PAc-in-search_450_1

This isn’t the first time Twitter has displayed advertisements in search — the social network has long matched your queries to promoted tweets. Adding keyword-based profile ads, however, places Twitter in direct competition with Google’s Adwords product.

AI Weekly

The must-read newsletter for AI and Big Data industry written by Khari Johnson, Kyle Wiggers, and Seth Colaner.

Included with VentureBeat Insider and VentureBeat VIP memberships.

More to follow.

VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Learn More