Twitter Testing Contextual Advertising System

Following leaked revelations Twitter will take in as much as $20 million or so per month by the fourth quarter of 2010, it appears the company is testing a new contextual advertising system that will target ads to people based upon the contents of their tweets.

Saul Hansell of the New York Times tweeted yesterday he's apparently in on the test and will have more to report at a later date.

Inline contextual advertising on Twitter might not be such a bad thing. If it's relevant. If it's not too frequent. And if it actually serves a person's needs. Time and testing will address that but one thing is clear. Either through fees, ad revenue or some other source, Twitter does need to start making money. Even the best services can't live on VC money indefinitely.

Twitter, of course, states all this leaked information is inaccurate and unofficial. But, there may be a reality TV show in the works called Final Tweet. Seriously. That has to be a joke.