Google to snap up Twitter?

Gwitter? Twoogle?

Technology start-up blog Tech Crunch has reported three sources as confirming that search giant Google is in late stage negotiations to acquire micro-blogging service and flavour of the year on the Internet, Twitter.

Tech Crunch opines that the commercial potential of Twitter lies not necessarily in the stream-of-consciousness dribble that constitutes much its traffic, but in the ability for companies to search Twitter to see what the Twittersphere, or whatever you call it, is saying about them and their brands.

In that respect it's like a great, big, realtime focus group and, we guess, allows companies to tick that all-important, ‘customer-centric' box in their mission statement.

It's an unofficial fact that companies of all kinds are putting a high priority on being involved in social media, without really knowing what the hell it is or why they might benefit from it. They just know it's big and they can't afford to not be part of it.

In conclusion, Tech Crunch asks where Microsoft, which has led us to believe is desperate to dent Google's dominance of the search market, is in all this. It would hardly be a step in the right direction for Microsoft to let the hottest property in search go to its big rival without at least a fight.

Here's an amusing interview with one of the co-founders of Twitter - Biz Stone - broadcast by US satire channel Comedy Central, in which he's challenged to explain the Twitter business model.