• GigaOm, Tuesday, July 8, 2008 11:45 AM

GigaOm and others report that microblogging sensation Twitter is on the cusp of acquiring Summarize, an app developer that conducts searches to find relevant messages on the service. Om Malik says the deal, which could be announced as early as next week, may even provide the Silicon Valley startup with the business model it's long been in search of.

Summarize summarizes itself thusly: "We monitor collective attitudes being expressed right now on the web." Actually, it does more than that: Summarize also analyzes conversations, offering a quick, collective opinion about what people think about a given topic. It does this by analyzing data coming from multiple conversational sources, like Twitter tweets and RSS feeds. For example, the average attitude about "Microhoo" (based on an amalgam of Twitter tweets) is currently "so-so." According to Malik, Summarize is also working on a way geocode public tweets, allowing one to find out what people are saying about Barack Obama in Columbus, Ohio, versus Dallas, Texas. How's that for real-time market research?

Since results are essentially keywords, Malik says Summarize could show contextual advertising next to the results pages. This would provide a way to monetize the conversations without being intrusive. "Just as AdSense serendipitously turned Google into a giant cash register, with Summize, Twitter can take first step towards a business model," he says.

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