Official: Twitter To Give Google Access To “Firehose” Of Tweets

Twitter and Google have once again reached an agreement to provide Google with access to Twitter full stream of tweets.

Commonly called the Twitter “firehose,” the news was formally announced on today’s Twitter earnings call by Twitter CEO Dick Costolo.

Costolo was sparse on the details. He didn’t announce it during the formal presentations but rather as part of an answer to a question not even specifically about Google. He confirmed there was a deal, apparently to address reports yesterday that one was coming.

“I don’t have any more details to share at this time,” Costolo said, after that.

Later in the Q&A, Costolo was asked how this deal differs from the previous one that Twitter had that ran from 2009-2011 with Google.

“We’ve got the opportunity now to drive a lot of attention to and aggregate eyeballs, if you will, to these logged-out experiences, topics and events that we plan on delivering on the front page of Twitter. And that’s one of the reasons this makes a lot more sense for us now,” he said.

Costolo was referring to experiments and changes that Twitter has been doing to better convert people who come to its content but who are not logged-into Twitter.

This follows on Twitter having improved its SEO efforts last fall to increase Google traffic, which resulted in it getting 10 times more logged-out visitors. After a taste of that traffic, it’s no wonder Twitter wants to give Google even more content, in hopes of bigger returns.

Costolo said that nothing would be launched for “several months.” Twitter told us that’s a reference to the technical backend needed to start supplying Google with the data. In other words, it’ll be a few months before the firehose is hooked-up.

And what are Google’s plans? It had no comment, when we asked.

For our best guess about how the deal will play out, as well as background on the previous Twitter-Google partnership, see our related story: FAQ: How Twitter’s New Deal To Bring Tweets To Google Search Works.

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About The Author

Danny Sullivan

Danny Sullivan was a journalist and analyst who covered the digital and search marketing space from 1996 through 2017. He was also a cofounder of Third Door Media, which publishes Search Engine Land and MarTech, and produces the SMX: Search Marketing Expo and MarTech events. He retired from journalism and Third Door Media in June 2017. You can learn more about him on his personal site & blog He can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.