Well, isn’t this a doozey? So I write an entry about what I think are Twitter’s five and ten year plan, and all of a sudden, TechCrunch comes out with enough inside information on Twitter’s goal for global domination that I had no option but to revise my initial entry. Then, as I submit this for publication, Reuters manages to scoop an interview with Biz Stone prior to his appearance at the Fortune Brainstorm: TECH conference.

So here’s the deal – Twitter is growing up (read as: Twitter is working on being monetizable) and every major player in the Internet/Entertainment space wants to be its surrogate parent. Facebook already made a play for Twitter but was rejected like Madonna in Malawi. Google’s taking the slower approach and looking for more integrated solutions. Now, from the flurry of information I just read on TechCrunch, everyone else from Microsoft to Oprah want a piece of the action. But Biz Stone made it clear that Twitter will not be bought and assimilated, but rather will work as a stand alone partner whose capabilities can complement any of the other companies.

What’s So Great About Twitter?

So, why is Twitter being courted so heavily, you ask? With the amount of interest and slight sense of desperation that permeates around the desire to acquire Twitter, a casual observer is forced to ask questions from the two following schools of thought:

• Is Twitter like a life preserver? Do engines, publishers, social networks and celebrities all need Twitter just to stay relevant in this era of instant, real-time information dissemination?
• Is Twitter like a Multi-stage rocket? Do engines, publishers…you get the idea…need Twitter to boost out of this world and be untouchable among their peers?

Naturally, after reading the two questions above, the casual observer would have to ask, “What is so important about Twitter? I don’t even get what Twitter is!”

Well, in the same vein as that grand old saying, “If you have to ask how much something costs, you probably can’t afford it,” those in the “know” would probably say, “If you don’t understand Twitter, you probably won’t appreciate why it’s so important.”

Lucky for you, I’m only marginally in the “know” so I’m not breaking with policy to expound. Twitter’s coveted prize is its real-time search engine and its global collection of users. What Twitter has done is add a new and important variable into the dissemination of information equation. When the user experience is centered around receiving information, they want that information to be relevant, and that’s what search engines are good for. But Twitter’s contribution is to introduce the variable of Time into the equation. With the integration of Twitter’s engine and it’s users who provide a stream of real-time data, consumers will get answers to their queries that are relevant – Now. That’s why, as Twitter positioned it, they’re going to have the “pulse of the planet.”

So what major corporation in this world doesn’t want to be a part of the pulse of the planet? If you’re a part of the pulse, you’re in the world’s blood stream, so you become invaluable globally. That kind of proposition is difficult to overlook for anyone. That seems to be where Twitter is planning on making their money. In the next few days, Twitter will launch an educational marketing campaign targeting businesses of all sizes on how they can use Twitter to improve their bottom line. Naturally, for business applications, Twitter will sell ad-ons and specific user data.

Monetizing Twitter

Twitter hasn’t said, as of the time of this writing, what the ad-ons are, but I’m guessing that as a business owner, I’d like to be able to select the demo and geo-targeting of the people I’d like to receive my tweets. For example, Macy’s would probably only want to send tweets of their women’s BOGO shoe sales to their women subscribers rather than everyone. Or, if my world famous Mom and Pop Deli Shop planned on sending out lunch specials, I’d probably want to send the tweets to people I know are in my vicinity so they can come patronize my special fried chicken breast sandwich with gravy and two strips of bacon sandwiched between two pieces of garlic bread as opposed to sending it out to the whole world.

Of course, whether or not all this pans out is a whole different story. As we all can remember, just a few years ago, MySpace was the greatest thing since the bread slicer (yes, that’s right, it was an enabler, not the final product) and look how quickly that fizzled out. Game changers happen quickly in this modern age and that’s part of the excitement in this space. So stay tuned and let’s see if Twitter will grow up to become a valuable addition to the Internet space or fizzle out like a Hollywood child star who couldn’t professionally maneuver the awkward teenage years.

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