Google-Twitter Deal Displays Tweets Prominently in Search Results

Do a search on Google today through your mobile device and you’ll see tweets displayed more prominently than ever before at the top of search results. This is thanks to a new Twitter-Google deal that was first announced at the beginning of the year, but was implemented officially today. Both Twitterand Google shared the news in blog posts, even including some examples of what users are expected to see.

Below is our own example of the #cannes2015 below. The tweets display in a carousel like format at the top of the page where all of them display the Twitter user and an image.

However, tweets don’t always display in search results. Sometimes they fall in the middle of the search results page; sometimes they don’t show up at all. According to the Google post, the company mentioned:

It’s a great way to get real-time info when something is happening. And it’s another way for organizations and people on Twitter to reach a global audience at the most relevant moments.

It looks like you’ll most likely see tweets in Google when a hashtag, topic, person, or organization appears to be trending or is newsworthy.

What’s Twitter gaining from this? Traffic. Twitter mentions there’s no direct monetization involved which means there aren’t going to be clicks to tweets on Google that will earn Twitter any direct money. Instead, click on the “More Tweets” button associated with the new Twitter carousel on Google is open up the Twitter app or website where the user can see more tweets, see ads, and be encouraged to download the Twitter app. Twitter is hoping with increased visibility on Google, more people will be prompted to join the social network. Currently Twitter has 303 million active users and has lagged behind Facebook in popularity and has struggled to attract new users.

For now, the new implementation will be available for Google mobile search results only in the U.S., in English, using either Twitter for iOS or Android, or by using the Google Search App. Twitter promises to add desktop and other languages in the next few months. Take a look at more examples of Tweets on Google here.