Now That There’s FaceFeed, Does That Make Twoogle More Inevitable?
by Kara Swisher
Posted on August 10, 2009 at 3:59 PM PT
MicroHoo. Check! FaceFeed. Check!
And Twoogle? Let’s check!
Yahoo (YHOO) and Microsoft (MSFT) have finally partnered. Microsoft is already a big investor in Facebook. And today, the huge social networking site just picked up online content-sharing site FriendFeed, which is chock-a-block full of ex-Google execs.
Now, one has to wonder if it wouldn’t be easier if Google (GOOG), the cash machine of a search giant, finally ponied up and bought the most recent star of Web 2.0?
That would be, of course, Twitter.
While previous rumors in the early spring that Google was imminently poised to acquire Twitter proved premature, the investors of the fast-growing microblogging service and Google execs have got to be thinking the same thing right about now:
Do we need each other to make some real-time noise?
It’s true that a lot of the hubbub around the idea of Twitter selling out has been mostly hype.
In addition, there are a lot of good arguments to be made that the San Francisco start-up is likely to be fine on its own and will soon find some very lucrative revenue streams.
Still, it is probably very disconcerting for Twitter to be holding onto the tail of the tiger of its own phenom and hope that it will not turn out to be a bad decision to imagine it will always be thus.
Linking up Twitter and Google is certainly a big idea, giving Google de facto ownership of real-time search, a big lift in the status-update game and yet another major and innovative Internet name brand.
It would also likely ensure that Twitter will dominate its sector for a very long time.
In other words: Gentlemen–and, since this is Silicon Valley, I do mean pretty much all gentlemen–start your engines.
Because whatever happens, it certainly will be fun to watch from the sidelines as MicroHoo, FaceFeed, Twoogle and more crash into one other and make the Internet as thrilling a place as it has ever been.
Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.
Comments
Great article Kara. I agree it’s going to be very interesting to see where things go over the next year. The superpowers are emerging, and Google & Twitter need each other. If not Google, where does Twitter think it can make > $500mil?
Posted by Adam Wexler at August 11th, 2009 at 7:17 amA:
Indeed.
Posted by Kara Swisher at August 11th, 2009 at 12:58 pm“More Inevitable” ?
Posted by bob johnson at August 11th, 2009 at 6:06 pm