Twitter is reportedly in separate talks with Google and Microsoft over providing search access to its data streams.
Google and Microsoft want to integrate Twitter’s much sought after content into the results of their search engines, sources told All Things Digital.
A number of options are being discussed to compensate Twitter for the data gathered from the billions of tweets generated by its 54 million users, including outright payment and a revenue sharing deal.
Twitter is reportedly seeking non-exclusive deal with the search engines, as it is eager to remain non-partisan in the search engine wars.
The sources stressed that it was possible that no deal would be reached during the negotiations. But with Twitter still yet to adopt a revenue-generating model, a tie-up with the big search players makes sense.
Says John Murrell on the Silicon Valley blog: “This way, it can expand its footprint without spending energy trying to compete directly with the big guys in search, and it would generate revenue in a way much less obtrusive to its users than an influx of advertising.”
Twitter last month changed its terms of service to allow for the introduction of advertising, but has a long-stated reluctance to resort to the traditional banner advertising model.