Who would think that a service as apparently inane as Twitter could come out of nowhere to suddenly start making money — and even affecting search results? It sounds strange, but it’s true. Keep reading for a closer look at the trend, and why search engines are starting to include these 140-character bursts in their results.
It’s hard to pinpoint an exact time when Twitter began gaining momentum. The microblogging service, which is now four years old, was just a blip on the radar a few years ago, well after it had been launched. At first, some critics dismissed it as a silly fad, but it began to pick up steam when celebrities began using the service to “tweet” their whereabouts, vent their frustrations, and start the occasional Twitter fight with other random celebrities — in 140 characters or less, of course.
Recently, the San Antonio, TX-based research firm Pear Analytics analyzed 2,000 tweets over a two-week period for six hours each day. Based on their research, the firm was able to break down each tweet on the site into six categories. For example, Pear Analytics found that 41 percent of tweets are pointless babble, while 38 percent are conversational. The rest of the numbers are equally unimpressive, with just 9 percent being characterized as “pass-along value,” 6 percent as self-promotion, and equal parts spam and news at 4 percent each.
When broken down in such a way, one would think that Twitter has little value. After all, how can pointless babble be turned into big bucks? Well, it has. The numbers aren’t clear, but it’s been reported that Twitter has raked in millions of dollars from investors, with the numbers skyrocketing each quarter.
Twitter has literally become a powerhouse; it’s considered one of the top three most popular websites in the world and its creator, Jack Dorsey, is now considered a tech force to be reckoned with. Recently, there have been certain goings-on that would give the service an even higher profile — if that’s even possible. Let’s find out what kind of deal Dorsey, the brainchild behind all things Twitter, has struck and how it may affect your search results in the future.
Twitter’s Firehose
A lot of data flies through Twitter, and that data can be incredibly important to news sites and search engines, among other services. Until very recently, Twitter had limits on the amount of data that could be taken from their streaming API — or firehose — and those limits applied to the estimated 50,000 applications that are believed to be using this data to their benefit.
As we’ll soon find out, Google and Microsoft’s new Bing search engine were some of the first to have unlimited access to Twitter’s firehose of data, which culls information from the service’s more than 50 million daily tweets.
This agreement — or contract — that Dorsey and Twitter have entered into with these search engines puts him in a very good position. It also helps the search engines, as they’re now able to benefit from live information updates in a way never experienced before. Essentially, Twitter has agreed to give specific search engines unlimited access to their data, meaning that any time Internet users look for information using a search engine, relevant results may include tweets. It seems like a simple concept, but it’s changing the web.
source: SEO Chat
