Mobile Commerce, SEO & Social Media Blog

All That Gwitter’s is Gold: Should Google Buy Twitter?

You just can’t deny it – social media has permeated our lives. This past January, Twitter climbed from 22 to the number 3 spot for most visited social media network with 54.2 million monthly visits, 5.9 million of those being unique visits.

While Facebook and MySpace still dominate social media network usage with 1.2 billion visits in January for Facebook and 810.2 million visits for MySpace, Twitter is clearly a rapidly growing force in social media.

“Twitter is quickly climbing the social media ladder.”

The latest Facebook update made obvious the threat that Twitter presents. The New Facebook eerily echoes of Twitter with status updates being the main focus. Instead of the old “Your Name is…” format, status update now asks, “What’s on your mind?” It’s a near infringement of Twitter’s renowned, “What are you doing?”

Beyond being a threat to other social media networks, Twitter presents a greater problem to search engines.

Traditional Media Beware

Although the movement for “social search” is in its infancy, our fast-track lives are pushing for quicker ways to get real-time news.

Take the instance of the 2007 earthquake in California. The question is not even what news station was able to broadcast the earthquake first, but which media network (this definition including social media).

Tweets on the earthquake appeared a mere second after it began.

“Twitter was the first to broadcast the 2007 California earthquake.”

Get in the Fast Lane on the Information Highway

Twitter has its own search model – twitter.search.com – where one can search for the latest tweets on a topic. With millions of people around the world tweeting daily, this could just be the McDonald’s of news – immediate, accessible, global.

Twitter can also take advantage of this need and expedite the change to social search. There has been talk of Twitter pushing alert-based tweets on users.

Currently, Twitter allows you to subscribe to alerts when others mention your topics or personal accounts. If Twitter can expand on this model, so that one can subscribe for alerts on local emergencies or tweets on desired news topics, then they have just assumed attack posture on search engines and media networks alike.

Building such options would make social search a more legitimized field, all while giving a great excuse for succumbing to social media pages all day.

“Jump on the information highway with Twitter.”

Google + Twitter = Gwitter?

Maybe they can come up with a better name for it, but social search does pose a serious threat to Google. This threat, however, can be converted into an opportunity for Google to break into social media by acquiring Twitter. There have been rumors that the two companies are talking, although whether it’s regarding an acquisition or a partnership is unclear.

What is clear is that Google can utilize Twitter in a way that will both create and dominate social search. The search engine can integrate Twitter search to allow Googlers and Twitterers alike to get news in real-time.

“Why [don't] Google and Yahoo offer Twitter search? Gives people instant feedback. Was that really an earthquake? Is everyone else’s power out? Develop a hyper-real-time tool to see what’s being buzzed about.” – Danny Sullivan, Editor in Chief of Search Engine Land

The merge is also pragmatic – Twitter is currently testing a text-based model for advertising, which aligns with Google AdWords. Additionally, since Google already owns a blogging platform, Blogger.com, it is logical that a microblogging platform such as Twitter would fit into the family.

So, don’t buy your baby shower gifts yet, but it may be smart to start thinking about it.

Lindsay Liu Want content written for your Brand that shows up #1 on Search Engines and brings you new customers? Contact us.