Ad.ly shows Twitter how to make money on Twitter: Targeted advertising

It's no secret that Twitter still hasn't found a way to do much with money other than spend it. The company is pulling back on its plan not to run ads on the site, and continues to say that paid corporate accounts will likely be its ultimate revenue source. While the white-hot microblogging platform's founders try to make this a reality, the businesses that use Twitter are finding ways to make money from it now.

Ad.ly is the latest company to enter the fray. Started by Sean Rad, a 23-year-old entrepreneur, it seeks to do more than push ads into a user's Twitter stream. In fact, Rad appears to have found a way to deliver what Twitter itself has said it wants to include in its up-market version: targeting. This has been the missing link in the Twitter environment; companies have been able to push out their content 140 characters at a time, but they don't really know who they are reaching. Ad.ly appears to have solved this problem.