Kimmo, Carol-- It is an interesting point about our tolerance to ads. We've become oblivious to billboards even though they take up much bigger space than anything on the computer. Banner ads are in the same pile. There's also greater tolerance to ads on public domains, such as Carol's website, the Wall Street Journal online or even Facebook. The issue of ads intensifies due to two factors: 1) when ads are forced on what is perceived by people as "private" (right or wrong) and 2) When ads are forced into paid experiences. Tivo made a business out of helping people get rid of ads. They tapped into the psychology of "I paid for it, I should have a say." I believe that people's tolerance of promoted tweets (that threshold) will be greatly influenced by their perception of privacy. If they invested in creating a twitter presence, conversations, and relationships with their community--they will consider Hootsuite ads more intrusive. If they see Hootsuite as more of a public domain (and perhaps spend most of their time browsing for others' tweets rather than post as much) they may feel it is less intrusive. In the end--I too am curious to see how things will unfold. Most likely, Hootsuite will figure out the max threshold and cap the ads there. We'll need to see if that's sufficient as a revenue stream generator. My guess is they'll need to find other ways to make money. Thanks again for the conversation! Ravit

Hi Kimmo, Thank you for sharing from your experience and expressing some counter points. It is true that the ads are clearly marked and, it's interesting to find that you've found some of these useful! I think that's great. In my perspective, with over 2000 followers on Twitter, the ads are becoming more visible. And, from information processing perspective I can guarantee that it *will* become more cognitively tasking to filter through what's good content and what's not, once Hootsuite increases the rate of ads showing (and they will, if they really want to make money). This will result in subtle annoyance associated with the Hootsuite brand--not a good thing. There are many creative business models to draw from, or at least, Hootsuite should let users Opt Out (just like the SPAM Act requires in email newsletters). Thanks for a good argument. Always appreciate the conversation! Ravit