Here come the twads

OK, maybe that's not the best name for them. (But then, how many people would have guessed that Apple was going to go with iPad?) Whatever it is called, Twitter's advertising platform is coming in about a month, according to

.

The bold timeline was provided by

, the chief executive and co-founder of

, while the folks from Twitter were a little bit more coy. Anamitra Banerji, the head of product management and monetization at Twitter, told MediaPost that "we are working on an ad platform, but it's only in the test phase."

But he did address the core issue of how people are going to distinguish between their friends' and colleagues oversharing and a car company's hard sell. Mr Banjeri said when Twitter launches the ad platform, it will make "explicitly clear than a sponsor" paid for the ad, and make it "relevant and useful, so the user doesn't think of it as an ad." Hmm, sounds a bit like having one's cake and eating it too.

This is not the first time that everyone has gotten excited about Twitter's plans to monetize its popularity. As

notes, rumors have been flying for a while. One of the juicier ones is that Twitter will release its platform at next month's

in Austin, where it made its official debut in 2007. We're holding out for this one, if only it provides a lovely excuse to finally see

in concert.