Google prepping Web2.0rhea search?

But of course

Google has hinted it may launch a search tool specifically for Twitter and other services dedicated to Web2.0rhea.

The Google Operating System blog - a site unaffiliated with the Mountain View Chocolate Factory - recently noticed that the company's localization service was alluding to some sort of Google "MicroBlogsearch" tool, describing a Microblog as "a blog with very short entries. Twitter is the popular service associated with this format":

A slim hint, to be sure, but the Google Operating System blog has told the world that a Mountain View Web2.0rhea search engine is just around the corner. And if it is, that would hardly be a surprise.

Yes, Google CEO Eric Schmidt has called Twitter "a poor man's email." But he quickly moved to soften that statement, and last month company poster child Marissa Mayer said "We are interested in being able to offer, for example, micro-blogging and micro-messaging in our search."

Of course, Google already indexes Twitter content, and it's now offering a prominent search sort dedicated to "recent results," including Tweets. But it's unclear how often Google indexes what is ostensibly real-time user-generated spew. And its "recent results" include more than Web2.0rhea.

Many have speculated that Google will swallow Twitter whole, but it needn't acquire the company to index its service. Several companies already offer Twitter search tools. They include Twitter itself, but its search tool - based on tech it gobbled with the acquisition of Summize - is less than efficient, and it sorts results by date and time.

Google Operating System has decided that Google's Microblogging service will operate much like Google's native Blog Search tool, sorting results according to how relevant they are - not just when they were posted. But again, this merely states the obvious.

Whether Google is looking to purchase Twitter or not, it's undoubtedly looking to improve its Web2.0rhea indexing skills. Last month, at Google Zeitgeist in London, after lauding Twitter's ability to show info in ostensible real-time, Google co-founder Larry Page said he's been urging his search gurus to index web content every second. "They sort of laugh at me and go, ‘It’s O.K. if it’s a few minutes’ old,’” he said. "And I’m like, ‘No, no, it needs to be every second.’"

We've asked Google to comment on the latest Twitter claims, but it has yet to respond. ®

Update

Google has responded - as you'd expect them to respond: "At Google we strive to connect people to all the world's information, and this includes information that's frequently updated such as news sites, blogs and real-time sources," says a company spokesman. "While we don't have anything to announce today, real-time information is important, and we're looking at different ways to use this information to make Google more useful to our users."