Search engines's like IceRocket have integrated Twitter searches for some time now. When are Google going to do the same? We already have Google blog search, so it seems like a logical next step for Google to introduce a Twitter like index feature for the public. What will be interesting will be what approach they take to do so. Rumours abound that they have been recently rebuffed with their attempt to buy Twitter so I would guess instead of "buy" it's now a case of "build".
So what should they be studying at the moment to decide on what they'll build. Twitter's search engine has two important drawbacks. It's limited to Twitter and results or sorted by date. Other search engines like Tweefind try at least sort Twitter posts by relevancy and search engines like Twingly try index multiple microblogging sites. I reckon none of them have hit the marke yet. I think Google will take a much more holistic view on the searchability of the index and the presentaiton of the results. Maybe a company like Topsy is company they should take their lead from. They've done a great job with their UI and the engine is gaining in popularity.
Another interesting sub plot in all of this will be if Twitter tries to stop Google's bots from spidering and indexing their sites or whether they will give them access up front like they have IceRocket. Maybe Google have already anticipated this and it is just a matter of time that we see Google simply bring out their own Twitter functinoality in Gmail or Wave and they create their own. I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with but whatever it they need it soon. In the meantime check out the video on the very cool Topsy.
