Google and Facebook in talks to buy Twitter

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If the report in todays The World Street Journal is to be believed Google and Facebook might soon bid to buy Twitter. Twitter has now over 200 million users, generating 65 million tweets every day. During the recent Super Bowl there were 4063 tweets per second breaking the previous record of 3283 tweets per second set during Japans 3-1 victory over Denmark during the last world cup. The record is of more then 6939 tweets per second set in Japan after midnight on  New Year's Eve.

But what is so special about Twitter a micro blogging sites ? Twitter has gained a lot of popularity over the past few years and is ranked at third place among the most popular Social Networking sites and among the top 10 most viewed sites worldwide. Facebook and Google have been in talks to buy Twitter for sum of $10 billion dollar much higher then the companies recent evaluation which was $3.7 billion dollars.

Both Google and Facebook have discussed buying Twitter in the past and have kept their lines of communication open.Twitter's revenues and valuation have risen even as the company continues on ways to translate its more than 200 million registered users into profitable business.

People familiar with the situation said that the company belive that it can grow into a $100 billion company.

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Google and Twitter launch service enabling Egyptians to tweet by phone

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Google Inc launched a special service to allow people in Egypt to send Twitter messages by dialing a phone number and leaving a voicemail, as Internet access remains cut off in the country amid anti-government protests.

"Like many people we've been glued to the news unfolding in Egypt and thinking of what we could do to help people on the ground," read a post on Google's official corporate blog on Monday.

The service, which Google said was developed with engineers from Twitter, allows people to dial a telephone number and leave a voicemail. The voicemail is automatically translated into an audio file message that is sent on Twitter using the identifying tag #egypt, Google said.

Google said in the blog post, titled "Some weekend work that will (hopefully) enable more Egyptians to be heard," that no Internet connection is needed to use the service.

It listed three phone numbers for people to call to use the service.

Internet social networking services like Twitter and Facebook have been important tools of communications for protesters in Egypt who have taken to the streets since last week to demonstrate against the 30-year rule of President Hosni Mubarak.

Internet service has been suspended around the country and phone text messaging has been disabled.

A source familiar with the matter said Google, whose corporate motto is "Don't Be Evil," was not taking sides in the crisis in Egypt, but was simply supporting access to information as it has done with other services such as video website YouTube.

YouTube has been streaming live coverage of Al Jazeera's broadcasts of the events in Egypt.

Dozens of the so-called speak-to-tweet messages were featured on Twitter on Monday. The messages ranged from a few seconds to several minutes and featured people identifying themselves as Egyptians and describing the situations in various parts of the country.

"The government is spreading rumors of fear and of burglary and of violence," said one of the messages from an English speaker. "The only incidence of theft and burglary are done by the police themselves."

Google listed the following numbers for people to use the service: +16504194196 or +390662207294 or +97316199855.

Source: www.reuters.com

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