• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, April 6, 2009

Reports surfaced last week that Google and Twitter were in late-stage talks to tie the knot. The search engine buying the social media microblogging site could be good news for marketers.

Twitter has the pulse on search to deliver the world's news, agreed Nicholas Graham, VP of communications at search engine Ask.com, and Richard Sim, VP of product management and marketing at Anchor Intelligence.

While it's a great communications tool for the average person, the power for marketers lies in its real-time search capabilities, said David Berkowitz, director of emerging media and client strategy at digital agency 360i.

"Twitter Search has the potential to become a crucial tool for marketers in both understanding what's being said about their brands online, as well as for timely communication with their customers," Berkowitz said. "A Google acquisition would likely only accelerate its importance to marketers because Google can give Twitter what it most desperately needs right now, which is the servers to power it, and a revenue model."

Google has begun offering marketers ads that stream most recent tweets across the Google AdSense Network. Still, the news of a possible acquisition sent tweets flying across the Twitter network.

A Google spokesperson declined to comment on the speculation of an acquisition. Twitter cofounder Biz Stone downplayed the possibility on his blog post. It's not the first time a bidder has come calling. Stone and cofounder Evan Williams reportedly rejected Facebook's $500 million offer last year.

While some believe that Google's bid could come in higher, others believe challenges will likely hinder any type of deal. Investments made by other sites and social networks could complicate things, according to Yves Darbouze. The creative director and founder of pLot Multimedia, New York also said Google would have a difficult time proving to investors it can make money from the site.

"Problems like this can happen when a corporation driven by stock prices takes on a social network," Darbouze said. "Look at MySpace, for example. When Rupert Murdoch bought MySpace they lost sight of being a new media company. At one point they didn't want YouTube videos embedded on MySpace pages. That's anti-Internet."

Unique visitors to Twitter reached 7 million in February 2009, compared with 475,000 during the same month in the prior year, making it the fastest-growing site in the Member Communities category for the month, according to Nielsen Online.

Trip Chowdhry, managing director at Global Equities Research, said Twitter won't survive without a revenue model. And the lack of one will drop the selling price for Google to swoop in and acquire the microblogging site for a song.

If Google buys Twitter, Chowdhry estimates the selling price at between $50 million and $80 million. No matter how the financial experts add it up, high operating costs and no profits still equal a business eating through funds, he said.

"It's innovation in a vacuum -- innovation without a business model," Chowdhry said, adding that the company is burning through cash like crazy. "I don't think Google will make the same mistake they did with YouTube."

Google paid $1.65 billion for YouTube, and as of today has generated a mere pittance in revenue, Chowdhry estimates. "Innovation without a solid business model that earns profit is useless," he said.