Twitter may have its problems, but one area where it excels is in breaking news updates, and Google knows it. We heard reports of a new deal between Google and Twitter back in February, then tweets started appearing in mobile search results in the middle of May. Now they’ve finally made it to the desktop as well (if you’re searching in English at least) so you can catch up on the latest tweets alongside Google’s regular list of matching websites.
Though Google remains particularly adept at finding the No. 1 site for a particular topic or search query, on today’s always-on, nonstop Internet, even pages that are a few hours old run the risk of being out-of-date. If there’s a breaking news story or a live sports event happening, then Twitter is the place to go — that’s why Google has been so keen to renew its relationship with the social media platform.
The previous Google-Twitter agreement fizzled out four years ago for reasons that weren’t particularly clear at the time. Whatever happened, the two tech giants have obviously now decided that teaming up is mutually beneficial again. The idea that Google may well buy Twitter outright has been one of the longest-running rumors in the industry, but that kind of deal doesn’t look imminent, even with Google floundering in the social media market.
As on mobile, you can search for a Twitter account, hashtag or trending topic to see Twitter updates appear in Google results. A rotating carousel of tweets will appear at the top of the page or some way down it, depending on what you’re searching for — you can click through to the individual tweets or the Twitter profile in question. In our tests the feature was a little hit and miss, but it’s early days and only available in English for now.
Google hasn’t said anything about the new feature but it did promise that desktop integration was coming in its previous blog post. Head over to Google yourself to see if you find the feature useful.
