SearchEngineWatch: Should Google Buy Twitter?

"Google's attempts to break into the social networking space haven't really been too impressive, though they obviously recognize its importance. Their Open Social involvement and launch of Friend Connect show they have commitment. The problem? Their efforts haven't proven as popular as Google Search or Gmail.

Actually, they should've worked more on integrating something through Gmail, which could have had a much more viral reach. People could have simply clicked to recommend it to others.

Twitter would be the perfect platform. Though if they're feeling really generous, they should buy it and keep it free, sort of like what they did with Google Analytics. It would give them the hottest thing in social media right now and an area that could use some help with tracking success.

Left to its own devices, Twitter could create a large chink in Google's armor. It generates traffic and is far more accurate on building TrustRank.

True, people are gaming it to some point, but fakes are found out a lot quicker than they are in search results pages. While the fake Dalai Lama grabbed tens of thousands of followers, he was shot down inside 36 hours."