Is Google planning to buy Twitter?

Google may be thinking about buying Twitter, eh? According to reports, the micro-blogging social network’s stock prices went up by 3.5% yesterday, following talks of the company fending off a takeover bid from another firm. A Barron’s report says there is ‘chatter’ around the matter, which points to Goldman Sachs as being the advisor and that there are two unnamed companies that are ‘serious’ about buying Twitter.

Further, in a report by BGR.com, the online publication says that one of these companies could be Google. While BGR doesn’t give a reason for this speculation, it is not hard to imagine Google going after Twitter.

If you take a look at Google’s past attempts at social networking, the company has failed miserably with products like Google Buzz and Wave. In addition, while Google+ is still up and running, it pales (in terms of number of users) in comparison to both Facebook and Twitter. Google+ has become more of a service for Android users, which allows for their photos to be accessed from the cloud.

Further, and more importantly, Google’s entire business revolves around one word — data. The company’s unparalleled success in the search domain is the reason for its success in other products. In fact, things like Google voice search, Maps and other successful services that Google offers, are a direct result of how much data the company has on users.

Now, social networking is arguably the biggest source of data after search, which means Google’s failure with such products can in theory affect them in future. This justifies the company’s interest in buying an existing popular social networking company, instead of trying to make its own product yet again.

Twitter is second only to Facebook in terms of social networking popularity, which means Google can easily get the kind of data it needs by buying Twitter.

After having said all of the above, it is important to note that this is still rampant speculation. The reports about Google buying Twitter are based entirely on unsubstantiated rumours, so it is possible that this might turn out to be nothing.