Update: Now Twitter CEO Evan Williams has posted a very curious Tweet:
Related? (via SIA)
Original article: Rumors and wishful thinking about Google buying Twitter are pretty much commonplace these days. Last week, TechCrunch got the buzz going in its latest round implying that the 2 companies were in late stage acquisition talks, but that was eventually dismissed as false.
It was revealed a short time later however, that Twitter was talking to both Google and Microsoft about possible advertising deals, the product of which we have yet to see.
The New York Times talked to Twitter investor Fred Wilson. "Mr. Wilson could not rule out an acquisition, conceding that ‘money has a powerful impact on people’ and that despite the Twitter co-founders’ desire to build a big company, they also have to answer to investors and employees," reports Times interviewer Claire Cain Miller.
Other things Wilson said though are interesting in their own right. He says the most important thing for Twitter as far as metrics, is the "tweet view." This is anytime a tweet is viewed (in case you couldn’t figure that out) – but that goes for Tweets viewed from anywhere – twitter.com, Facebook, or any other apps.
"So, a partnership with Google or Microsoft, for example, could increase Twitter’s tweet views while also providing the bigger companies with a real-time stream of messages relevant to their audiences," writes Miller. Another partner from Wilson’s firm likens the concept to past partnerships between Google and companies like AOL and Yahoo in Google’s early days.
So acquisition or no acquisition, there are Twitter/Google or Twitter/Microsoft real-time search possibilities. It’s going to be quite interesting to see where this all leads.
