Commentary

Why Google Will Buy Twitter And Make Billions

To paraphrase Ron Burgundy, Google is kind of a big deal -- I'm willing to bet Google's study reeks of rich mahogany and has many leather-bound books. The ability to organize information on the Web (search results) and to monetize people's intentions (marketing based on what people are searching for) is Google's golden goose. Simply put, Google is a multibillion-dollar company because it can put marketers in front of people at the right time in the right way. Google has cornered the market on searching the Web for information, and monetizing that behavior. Twitter is introducing the world to a new type of search, and with the perfection of this new type of search will come all the riches of search marketing. This, in my opinion, is what will make Twitter worth billions -- and why Google will (or at least should) buy Twitter.

 

Using Google to search the Internet helps people to find information on a subject. As Twitter's search continues to evolve, using Twitter for search will help people find out where to find current discussions on a subject.

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Think of how powerful this is. If I want to research a subject, Google is the way to go. If I want to find out what is being said about a topic at any given moment, Twitter is my source. People are already fascinated by watching people discuss various events or topics live in real time, using Twitter search and # (hash tags). What these services do is to provide me with information (a stream of people's thoughts) on any keyword, or series of keywords. Sound familiar?

If this doesn't sound like an amazingly useful and innovative breakthrough, it's only because I am a lousy writer and can't do it justice here. Search functionality on Twitter has a way to go (another reason why Google makes a perfect partner), but imagine if I could search New York City for people discussing "run central park." I am going to see the most recent thoughts of people who have, or are going to run in Central Park. That might produce results like: "Just went for a run in central park, big event near Tavern On The Green really slowed me down" or "about to go for a run in central park, going to do 4 miles, anyone else going," Again, if this is not striking you as an incredibly useful tool, then it's because I am not doing the potential for searching people's current discussions justice.

Then comes the money. Google has proven that if you can provide a useful search experience, then you can provide useful marketing. If you can provide useful marketing, you can return amazing ROI for marketers. If you can provide amazing ROI for marketers, you can make a lot of money. If Twitter perfects the search of current discussions, monetization will be right around the corner. There will be some rules that will need to be adapted from Google's AdWords model, but the sentiment is the same. Would Samsung like to be put in front of someone who wants to know what people are saying about flat-screen TVs? For that matter, would any brand like the opportunity to talk to people who are searching for what other people are saying about their brand?

There are a lot of reason why Twitter has amazing value to marketers, and therefore revenue potential even beyond search, but search is the key to most of them. I had a conversation with Forrester's Josh Bernoff (http://twitter.com/jbernoff ) at last week's 4As conference about just this subject and he had some very interesting thoughts. If Google wants to organize the world's information and make it accessible [and monetize it], I would like to point out that services like Twitter and Facebook status updates (big caveat is that you have to know Facebook wants to do this as well, and Microsoft will want to help) are becoming a very large part of the world's information: information about what people are saying right now.

What do you think? @ me on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/joemarchese and/or leave a comment below. I read every one even if I can't respond to them all.

10 comments about "Why Google Will Buy Twitter And Make Billions".
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  1. Anthony Vespucci from FD Kinesis, March 10, 2009 at 3:40 p.m.

    Does it make sense? Yes. Will it happen after these comments from a WSJ article: "For those wondering what Eric Schmidt thinks of Twitter, the Google chief executive made his views clear on Tuesday. It’s “a poor man’s email system,” said Schmidt at an investor conference in San Francisco." Highly doubt it

  2. Roy Perry from Greater Media Philadelphia, March 10, 2009 at 3:47 p.m.

    The vapid sludge that passes for democratized digitized communication, of commercial value? It's not the text equivalent of the web, it's the text equivalent of your uploaded cellphone video of your best bud slamming into a brick wall on a skateboard and everybody that likes that kind of thing sending each other the message "ha ha ha". Good context for an ad? My competitor's, maybe.

  3. Roy Perry from Greater Media Philadelphia, March 10, 2009 at 4:25 p.m.

    Dude! Thanks to my cool informative high-value early adopter influencer buds and buddettes on Twitter I am now so smart about MRI's that I could, like, administer one between beers.

  4. Wing Yu from FinancialContent, Inc., March 10, 2009 at 5:02 p.m.

    The jogging in Central Park isn't a very good example. How about, "share a cab to JFK? meet at 6th & 52nd in 15 mins"

  5. Dean Jutilla, March 10, 2009 at 5:17 p.m.

    Google buy Twitter? Not if Amazon beats them to it: http://tinyurl.com/7yrgd2

  6. David Honig, March 10, 2009 at 5:25 p.m.

    Alot of noise out in twitterville. I use it, and over the months learned to really love it, but I am still not sold on the power of it from an advertising perspective. What you explained and noted is pretty much an adwords model based on real time conversations. Sure the ROI would be good. But whats the scale?
    I always say expect the unexpected. I really dont see Google buying Twitter, I think they really dont need them. We know that Facebook had a failed attempt in buying twitter last year.http://tinyurl.com/dn67kt. If I were to take the first step in

  7. Mark Sarsha, March 10, 2009 at 5:40 p.m.

    Google and Twitter are definitely a great fit. I can just see the names now. Twoogle?!?! Gwitter?!?!

    Agree with you...Google is an amazing search engine. I thought initially that Twitter was just another media device for "self-centered" people to get more exposure....and show-off by how many people they could get to follow them.

    It is so much more than that!

    The ability to follow thought leaders/experts on specific subjects is revolutionary! Even more powerful is that "we" choose...vs. the media pushing on us who "they" think we should listen to. And now these thought leaders are becoming brands themselves!

    As research develops ways to track the "subjects" and "topics"...monetization will follow immediately. With search...we are just looking for an answer or information. With Twitter...we get answers, information....AND an invitation in to a group to truly understand "how" they think and what they care about. Much more than search!

    But even more than all of this...I think it is expanding the non-thought leaders/experts...just the "normal" internet users...to become something more! As you build your group that you are following....you learn so much more about certain subjects, the way experts think, new things you never even thought of...it rubs off and "you" become more than you were.

    Those "normal" internet users are your mass consumers....learn all the little things they know and like...via how they twitter and who they follow...and we have a whole new path for marketing.

    www.twitter.com/SarshUpD8

  8. David Honig, March 10, 2009 at 5:41 p.m.

    sorry didnt finish the above comment

    Alot of noise out in twitterville. I use it, and over the months learned to really love it, but I am still not sold on the power of it from an advertising perspective. What you explained and noted is pretty much an adwords model based on real time conversations. Sure the ROI would be good. But whats the scale? I always say expect the unexpected. I really dont see Google buying Twitter, I think they really dont need them. We know that Facebook had a failed attempt in buying twitter last year.http://tinyurl.com/dn67kt. If I were to take the first step in for Twitter. I would call up my friends at Facebook and MSN and give a short term exclusive right to promote brands fan pages on twitter. So if you were searching for info on a samsung tv, drive them to the fan page. Facebook wins, twitter wins and MSN wins because they sell the media.
    They can than retarget to these users on twitter with special "friends and family " type of offers in which they can share with their friends via the status.
    One other interesting thing i am surprised i am not hearing more about. The incredible adoption of these "make a url short " services such as tinyurl, twitpic and many others. This is potential gold and a good way to recognize those who are the evangelists and understand their connections thru these links. Twitter is just an incredibly powerful stage for bloggers to help build the right audience that will listen. These people may be like-minded without even knowing each other where you can make the argument that these people deserved to be graphed together based on the connections between these links. Ex. I share a review of a new samsung tv on my blog or site, i shorten the url, post it, My audience clicks on these links... what does this mean to a marketer?
    Again, I like Twitter, think too much emphasis is put on listening. I agree, Very Important, but you need a controlled environment to take these people too and the new Facebook fan pages may be the answer today. And Finally... Fan

  9. David Honig, March 10, 2009 at 5:44 p.m.

    We are in the 1st inning here. Need to understand that its not jut about twitter or facebook. Remember when we all had AOL accounts in the early 90's. Try to find alot of your friends using AOL today. if i heard" You've got mail " today, It would echo through my office and would probably stop everyone in their tracks. Think Horizontal, not walled gardens

    Thanks

    @davehonig

  10. Josh Kaner from Undertone Networks, March 11, 2009 at 5:26 p.m.

    Joe- I disagree on Google buying twitter - although I do agree on Twitter's value. Full thoughts and the unlikely suitor available at:

    http://joshkaner.com/2009/03/04/we-are-all-twits/

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