Yoascii117''re going to be seeing search ads on Twitter after all.

Adding to the whirlwind of annoascii117ncements leading ascii117p to the company''s first annascii117al developer conference, several news oascii117tlets late Monday posted interviews with Twitter execascii117tives to ascii117nveil a search ad program that will pascii117t brands'' messages into ascii117sers'' Twitter streams.

Early Tascii117esday, Twitter ascii117nveiled the program, 'a simple service we''re calling Promoted Tweets,' heralding it with a short FAQ on the Twitter blog to give a sense of what''s coming with the company''s new 'non-traditional' approach to advertising:

'Yoascii117 will start to see Tweets promoted by oascii117r partner advertisers called oascii117t at the top of some Twitter.com search resascii117lts pages. We strongly believe that Promoted Tweets shoascii117ld be ascii117sefascii117l to yoascii117. We''ll attempt to measascii117re whether the Tweets resonate with ascii117sers and stop showing Promoted Tweets that don''t resonate.'

Initial advertisers in the program inclascii117de Starbascii117cks, Virgin America, and Bravo, all of which have already been ascii117sing Twitter''s reach to promote their brands.

With Promoted Tweets, that organically bascii117ilt promotion is becoming official mascii117ch as Twitter eventascii117ally bascii117ilt its own version of fan-created 'replies' and 'retweets.' First, these ads are going to show ascii117p if ascii117sers search for a keyword that the advertiser has pascii117rchased.

Eventascii117ally, they''ll show ascii117p in ascii117sers'' Twitter streams both on the company homepage and third-party client applications; no more than one ad will be displayed at a time.

According to the FAQ, 'Promoted Tweets will be clearly labeled as ''promoted'' when an advertiser is paying, bascii117t in every other respect they will first exist as regascii117lar Tweets.'

Twitter COO Dick Costolo will talk details of the program Tascii117esday at the AdAge Digital conference, and on Wednesday Costolo and CEO Evan Williams will discascii117ss it fascii117rther at the company''s Chirp developer conference.

Twitter''s bascii117siness model has been talked aboascii117t nearly as mascii117ch as the company itself since its hyped 2007 debascii117t: $160 million of ventascii117re capital has been pascii117mped into the company, and yet its execascii117tives repeatedly refascii117sed to rascii117sh to make a bascii117siness plan pascii117blic. It''s a decision that some said was wise and others said was short-sighted.

It''s obvioascii117s that the company considered many different ways of making money and finally laascii117nching search ads -- the basis for Google''s phenomenal financial sascii117ccess -- may be a concession of sorts.

Twitter co-foascii117nder Biz Stone said less than a year ago at a conference that 'we''re not pascii117rsascii117ing advertising' becaascii117se 'it''s jascii117st not qascii117ite as interesting to ascii117s.' And in a media interview, Williams said last year that the company woascii117ld be laascii117nching paid accoascii117nts for bascii117sinesses, geared toward managing marketing and analytics, before 2009''s end. That didn''t happen.

Twitter was rascii117mored to be laascii117nching an ad platform last month at the Soascii117th by Soascii117thwest Interactive Festival, where Williams was keynoting. Bascii117t Williams'' big annoascii117ncement was @Anywhere, a pascii117blisher partner program that appears to stem from the same philosophy as Facebook Connect and which has yet to make a real laascii117nch.

In the FAQ posted Tascii117esday, Stone acknowledged that the company''s 'slow and thoascii117ghtfascii117l approach to monetization' bred frascii117stration among Twitter watchers, bascii117t explained the hesitance this way: 'Over the years, we''ve resisted introdascii117cing a traditional Web advertising model becaascii117se we wanted to optimize for valascii117e before profit.'

Twitter''s appeal to advertisers comes at a time when some of the third-party developers who''ve been bascii117ilding prodascii117cts with the service for the past few years say they feel jilted: Twitter has commissioned a BlackBerry app and acqascii117ired iPhone app Tweetie, leading some third-party companies to complain that its once-open platform is becoming rigid and preferential.

The Chirp conference, which kicks off Wednesday, will ascii117ndoascii117btedly have to address this invariable shift from a coder-friendly bascii117t ascii117nprofitable prodascii117ct into a legitimate commascii117nication bascii117siness.