Twitter confirms deal with Google to make tweets searchable

UPDATE (Feb. 6): Twitter CEO Dick Costolo confirmed reports of a deal with Google during Twitter’s fourth quarter earnings call on Thursday.

Costolo didn’t share many details about the deal, but noted it would be “several months” before users will see their tweets in Google search results.

“We have a number of projects underway to grow our user base and provide a compelling valuable experience to anyone in the world whether they have a Twitter account or not,” Costolo said in a conference call with investors.

The move could help boost Twitter’s growth, which lags compared to other social networks. The company had 288 million monthly users at the end of the quarter, up 20 per cent from a year earlier.

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TORONTO – Twitter has reportedly reached a deal with search engine giant Google to boost users tweets in search results, according to a recent Bloomberg report.

The deal would make users’ tweets visible in Google search results as soon as they are sent, according to the report citing sources familiar with the matter. Bloomberg said terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Currently, Google crawls Twitter’s website for information to show in search results and usually just shows a user’s profile information. This deal would reportedly give Google direct access to Twitter’s database of tweets as they come in.

But, trigger happy tweeters beware – it’s unclear what will happen to tweets if they are deleted from the social networking site.

READ MORE: Bing creates new search showcase for Facebook, Twitter results

Twitter already has similar deals with Yahoo and Bing.

Global News contacted Twitter and Google regarding the report; however, requests for comment were not immediately returned.

Twitter is set to report its fourth quarter earnings Thursday.