Now, Google and Microsoft are in a similar bidding war over Twitter, according to Kara Swisher, who writes that the companies “find themselves in yet another sharp-elbowed battle to be the one to strike a commercial search advertising deal with Twitter.” While Twitter has famously not said much about its business model – other than paid accounts will likely arrive at some point in the future – these search ads are a logical move for any site reaching the volume of Twitter.
Unfortunately, they are also boring. As both MySpace did with Google and Facebook did with Microsoft, these search deals typically amount to inserting the search engine and its ads into the branding of the social network, with no unique social twist. In Twitter’s case, they already have a unique search product – real-time conversation as opposed to Web pages – but simply inserting AdSense or AdCenter (Microsoft’s publisher product) next to these results doesn’t accomplish much, for users or for the ad partner.
Moreover, it probably doesn’t make much money for Twitter, unless of course they get a huge guaranteed payment from the winning bidder (as has been the case for Facebook and MySpace). As opposed to a Web search, where you’re usually conducting a navigational search and advertising links can be helpful, when searching Twitter, you’re not looking to leave the site. Additionally, for those that access Twitter via clients, these ads will never be seen, unless they’re somehow included in the stream. Granted, there is enough volume to make some money for Twitter, but not nearly the type of cash that pure Web search produces.