Mere moments ago Twitter launched the first leg of its "Verified Accounts" program.

Now celebrities such as Oprah and PuffDaddy P Diddy Diddy (among others) carry the following Verified Account badge.

BusinessWeek asks if Twitter is the Next Monster.com, which is an interesting question because at PubCon South, Top Rank Marketing‘s Lee Odden referenced a company that bought ads with Monster (and other places like it) but got better results from Twitter.