Most of you have probably read or at least seen that Google is now including Twitter feeds in search results. Today Bloomberg.com has reported that Twitter has apparently made a few bucks off it. $25 million to be exact.
The money comes from search deals with both Google and Microsoft. Of the $25 million, only about $5 million will be profit because Twitter’s operating costs are estimated to be $20 million annually.
Good for Twitter. The site’s meteoric rise over the past 18 months has left many wondering how it could generate revenue.This seems to be an okay step.
The biggest winners for the deal will likely be the search engines themselves. Considering Twitter’s daily traffic and Twitter’s ability to disseminate real-time information, it seemed only a matter of time before Bing and Google got their hands on what could arguably be the most current searchable data on the web.
Google search can return thousands of sites telling me about Washington, DC but Twitter search will tell me what is happening in DC at the exact moment I’m searching. This is also a smart move considering stats for traffic to search.twitter.com has had amazing growth over the past year as compared to Google Blog search.
So for Google and Bing, who are in the search business, they need to have the latest information because that is what people want.
How do you feel about the new Twitter feed feature in Google search? Is it beneficial or something you could do without?
RT @LRyanRiley: What do you think about Twitter feeds in Google search? (And the fact that Twitter make some money): http://bit.ly/6jq8Dn
December 20th, 2009 at 11:58 pm