by News Editor
L. Sutherland
L. Sutherland
As we covered last month, Google spotted the huge potential of Twitter some time ago. Now, it seems that the Mountain View giant has settled on a way to capitalise on the increasingly popular microblogging site. Google Operating System, an unofficial Google news and tips blog, claims that the search king is preparing to launch a service that indexes and ranks microblogging content. If correct, the move is hardly an unexpected one. Back in May, Google's Marissa Myer told the Los Angeles Times there was potential in the model, saying: "We are interested in being able to offer, for example, micro-blogging and micro-messaging in our search.
"Particularly in Blog Search and possibly in Web Search, but we don't have any particular plans to announce."
Google Operating System claims that the new service will be similar to the Google Blog Search function and will sort results by relevancy and integrated within the Google search engine.
What this potential move will do to Twitter's recently released search function is something both the original microblogging site and a wide range of other interested parties will be watching, as industry insiders search for the best way to monetise this section of Web 2.0.
But Google isn't the only company utilising Twitter's power at the moment: the weekend was also rife with speculation following an announcement from computing giant Dell that its sales are being impacted by Twitter.
According to The Register, the computer company claimed that its DellOutlet Twitter account has generated about $2 million worth of sales for them. However, many industry commentators have questioned how much the release of this information is designed to grab some of the Twitter limelight rather than highlighting a true spending trend - seeing as it is a mere drop in the ocean of the company's revenue.
Either way, with such big companies pitching their weight behind the microblogging service, it's likely that its profile is only set to grow - with more and more people thinking up ways to condense their messages to a tweeteriffic 140 characters.
