I’d been thinking that Google buying at least part of Twitter was inevitable, and I’m surprised to still see Larry Page resistant to the idea. Well, I suppose that’s exactly what you say if you are interested in buying another business.
I’ll admit that I’d like to see Twitter not get absorbed, into any other company actually. That’s why Digital Media Minute has declined to purchase part of Twitter. Ok, maybe I’m kidding. Seriously, it would have to impact the hunger with which the business was started, and that can’t have positive ramifications for the user experience.
Twitter’s incredibly rapid growth means that search has apparently fragmented along an immediacy-accuracy continuum, and Twitter’s dominance in the former is beginning to resemble Google’s lead in the latter. Of course there are already ways to integrate Twitter results into Google’s serps, and to emphasize recent data from Twitter (or anyone else) by sorting according to post date. This shows flexibility on Google’s part, but is also validation of Twitter: the hyper-recent results will often be preferred and right now they most often originate from Twitter. As mobile computing (or whatever we’ll call it) becomes as ubiquitous as your cell phone, we’ve assumed that finding your friends or a good restaurant would still start with Google. The way Twitter threatens to suddenly blindside this is fascinating.
