Has Twitter found its monetization scheme: sell real time info to Google

Robert Scoble asked the question this morning, “is the real-time web a threat to Google”. Many followers of Scoble on Twitter and Friendfeed (he unabashedly loves both) have admitted to searching their social network for answers/opinions before going to Google. This segmentation of the search market is something new and something to note.

I see the difference being trusted info (at least to a degree) from your social network and untrusted (at least anonymous) info from Google and other search engines. At the moment, Google doesn’t easily index tweets or conversations on Friendfeed where networks move at the pace of real-time.

As a recent convert to Twitter, I am finding I spend less time out there searching for new posts on some of my favorite websites like Gadgetell. Sure I could get the info via a RSS feed, but having TwitterGadget right in my Gmail brings the news to me with commentary and other tweets so I don’t have to move. I really like that and it makes me more efficient not having to go out and regularly check for updates as I am prone to do…

So how does Twitter make money on this? Honestly, I see the endgame as an outright purchase by a bigger fish, like Google.

What do you think? Does real time info make it more valuable? Does Google have a handle on “trusted info”? Will Google find a way just to steal Twitters thunder or at least info? Let’s battle it out in the comments.

Read [Scobleizer]