A Twitter advertising platform was widely expected to be unveiled today, but instead co-founder Ev Williams used his keynote address at SXSW 2010 to announce @anywhere.
@Anywhere is a new platform that will allow Twitter integration on Web sites. The Huffington Post will be among its pilot partners.
Williams did say today that Twitter's business model will take experimentation, and that Twitter is focused on delivering the best user experience possible first.
Some were disappointed by the lack of information on the rumored Twitter ad platform, and Brian Morrissey of AdWeek says it "threw the audience for a loop."
In November, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said that Twitter would soon be launching commercial accounts and ads. Twitter COO Dick Costolo touted the pending ad platform as "fascinating, non-traditional, and people will love it."
Rumors intensified as SXSW 2010 approached that Twitter would reveal its official plans for the ad platform at the event, but that was not the case.
Last month, Anamitra Banerji -- head of product management and monetization at Twitter -- told MediaPost.com, "We are working on an ad platform, but it's only in the test phase," and that report said the launch was "imminent," fueling media speculation that it would be unveiled at SXSW.
ReadWriteWeb reported on Feb. 26 that the Twitter ad platform will be "primarily search based," but few details have been revealed since.