There’s been an unbelievable amount of buzz circulating around an acquisition that everyone likes to fantasize about, but may or may not ever actually occur. I’m talking of course about Google buying Twitter.
Predictions have been made since Twitter became popular, and last week, the buzz reached new levels after TechCrunch reported a rumor that the two companies were in talks. So far, nothing is really happening that anybody has concrete evidence of. Biz Stone said, “It should come as no surprise that Twitter engages in discussions with other companies regularly and on a variety of subjects.”
Even if nothing ever becomes of Twitter and Google, the notion that the two could meet has inspired imaginations everywhere. Angela Gunn at Betanews offers some suggested Google-Twitter tweet scenarios for Biz Stone. Here are a couple of them:
– $one billion to change it to twoogle? nah, ill pass
– You thought people hated the new Facebook design? Wait ’til they see where I strike next. You’ll never guess.
– RT @youtube Mmm, safe and warm here. Let someone else mind the servers.
SlateV.com (via Kara Swisher) has even gone so far as to create a spoof video about a service called Flutter. Swisher suggests Google acquire it instead.
Ann Smarty at Search Engine Journal takes the concept a little more seriously and looks at some interesting integrations of Twitter search and Google Search. One adds the five most recent tweets based on your query to the top of your Google SERP in a universal search-style presentation. One lets you search a number of search platforms simultaneously with Google search, and Twitter is included. One simply adds a link to Twitter results alongside “web” and “news.”
Not everyone’s as enthusiastic about a potential Twitter-to-Google deal. Robert Scoble recently called to mind when Google acquired microblogging services Jaiku and Dodgeball, both of which are now dead. The whole point is really moot anyway until one or both of the companies actually comes out and says that some kind of deal is in motion. Although the integrations Smarty references are actually things you can use if so inclined.
