Is Twitter 2008's answer to Facebook? The micro-blogging service, which allows people to post updates on their activities, has enjoyed a huge rise in popularity since the start of the year, not least due to the flurry of activity from prominent posters like Barack Obama.And in a deal that's had Silicon Valley insiders shaking with delight this week, it's been revealed that Twitter has acquired the search engine Summize, a company who launched their own comprehensive Twitter search facility earlier this year.
Earlier this week, a post on the official Twitter Blog stated: "We're excited to announce that Twitter has acquired Summize - an extraordinary search tool and an amazing group of engineers. All five Summize engineers will move to San Francisco, CA and take jobs at Twitter, Inc. this is an important step forward in the evolution of Twitter as a company." Summize's CEO, Jay Virdy, however, will not be joining the Twitter gang.
According to the team at Twitter, Summize "significantly improved on [the] idea of filtering and search" on Twitter and the Summize API, which lets users filter through twitter updates, will also be merged under the Twitter brand. As a result, Summize has now become Twitter Search and the URL summize.com redirects to search.twitter.com.
Through the search facility, users will be able to search for Twitter users or themes, and are even able to set up an RSS feed for the query or create a twitter post with the results. But Summize is certainly not the first such Twitter search engine; the likes of Tweetscan, Twittertroll and Twellow.com also offer similar services. However, by acquiring Summize, Twitter is seemingly solidifying its position in the social media sphere and possibly foreshadows the development of a paid search advertising scheme operated via the search facility, potentially rivalling the likes of Facebook and MySpace for a piece of growing social advertising revenues.
Nevertheless, it's important to put Twitter's popularity into context. Searches for Twitter on Google have doubled since early 2007:
But this is still very limited in comparison to the massive traffic that the likes of Facebook, MySpace and Bebo experience.
And with competitors like FriendFeed also growing in stature by the minute, it's going to be increasingly important for Twitter to ensure that its acquisition of Summize and any future moves it makes are geared towards winning new members over, as well as pleasing its existing loyal fan base.
