By Yoree Koh And Rolfe Winkler
Twitter Inc. has agreed to give Google Inc. access to its stream
of data, in a move that could make it easier for tweets to appear
in search results, according to people familiar with the
matter.
The deal means the 140-character messages written by Twitter's
284 million users could be featured faster and more prominently by
the search engine. The hope is that greater placement in Google's
search results could drive more traffic to Twitter, which could one
day sell advertising to these visitors when they come to the site,
or more important, entice them to sign up for the service.
Bloomberg News earlier reported on the search arrangement,
saying the Twitter content could show up in Google's search results
in near real-time in the first half of this year. Google currently
displays tweets in its search results but it crawls the site for
content.
The arrangement essentially revives an agreement that the two
companies first forged in 2009. That deal lapsed after two years,
however, after it was clear that the data integration didn't drive
meaningful traffic to Twitter, deliver adequate revenue or inspire
new users to join the service, according to people familiar with
the matter.
The dissolution was also due to disagreements over how Twitter's
content would be displayed and how Google would use the data.
Google meanwhile had launched Google Plus, a competing social-media
service which could have benefited from having Twitter data
integrated into it. Twitter sought to limit the integration to
search results while Google wanted freedom to use it across any of
its products, these people said.
It is unclear how the terms of the latest arrangement differ
from the first one that ended in 2011.
Twitter has said in recent months that its aim is to build the
world's largest daily audience, a goal it hopes to achieve by
serving those beyond its registered users. It has identified two
additional audiences: those who visit but don't sign up for
Twitter, and those who view Twitter content on other media
properties.
The deal with Google would help Twitter with the former by
making it easier to get tweets in front of nonusers. Earlier this
week, Twitter announced plans to sell ads outside of its own
platform for the first time, inking deals with news-reading app
Flipboard and Internet portal Yahoo Japan.
Twitter has similar deals in place with Microsoft Corp.'s Bing
and Yahoo Inc.
News of the deal comes a day before Twitter is expected to
report fourth-quarter earnings. Analysts expect Twitter's user
growth to continue slowing, but revenue is projected to climb 87%
to $453.1 million from a year earlier, according to a consensus
estimate from Thomson Reuters.
Write to Yoree Koh at yoree.koh@wsj.com and Rolfe Winkler at
rolfe.winkler@wsj.com
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