Bloggers Mostly Positive on Google-Twitter Merger

Most of the talk on the blogosphere today was on whether Google would purchase Twitter. There was relatively discussion of whether Google should purchase Twitter.

To gauge the feelings of bloggers, I surveyed countless postings about the proposed merger. I found them with a Google Blog Search for [google twitter]. Over fifty bloggers took an editorial position on the rumor.

I rated each of the postings from 1 to 5 as follows (with the percentage each represented in parenthesis):

1. Strongly Positive (28.30%)
2. Slightly Positive (32.08%)
3. Neutral (15.09%)
4. Slightly Negative (18.87%)
5. Strong Negative (5.66%)

Neutral means that the blogger seemed to weigh both sides and fine them fairly equal, not that he or she didn’t have an opinion.

Certainly, the survey was not strictly scientific, but I expect it is a fairly representative sample.

So, over sixty percent of bloggers are positive about the proposed merger. Given the number of Google and Twitter fans out there, that shouldn’t be surprising.

As for me, I am not quite so positive. Frankly, I have a difficult time seeing how this would be good for anyone involved.

Google has been the place where social media systems have gone to die. Whether this is due to incompetence on Google’s part or the inherently short lifecycle of social networks, they’ve had absolutely no success with their social media acquisitions.

The only reason I can see for Google purchasing Twitter would be to keep them from going to a competitor. But any such acquirer would have to figure out a working financial model to truly be competitive, and if they can do that, they can build a competitor to Twitter on their own.

For Twitter, it would be admitting that they have no idea how to function as a viable, independent entity. If they can figure out the financial model on their own, and still maintain their current growth rate, they have the opportunity to be something truly huge.

Does anyone really doubt that Twitter would quickly be integrated in to Google as a whole? That which makes Twitter unique and interesting would certainly die.

So, put me down as strongly negative.