Dysfunctional microblogging service Twitter Inc. is rumored to have acquired Summize Inc., a search engine designed to crawl through individual Twitter posts or "tweets." The rumor, which has yet to be confirmed by either party (and was reportedly denied by a source close to at least one), arises less than two weeks after Twitter co-founder Biz Stone wrote that Spark Capital and Jeff Bezos of Bezos Expeditions had joined its investment team in a round said to be worth at least $15 million at a $100 million valuation. Union Square Ventures and Digital Garage are also investors in Twitter.

Twitter is by far the most recognizable brand name among microblogging startups, which generally allow users to communicate via short posts of less than 140 characters, from either SMS, the Web or through other applications. Despite (and because of) its popularity, the service is constantly dogged by downtime issues, which surely keep its in-house engineers too busy to create a search engine from scratch.

Now flush with cash, Twitter could buy rather than build, although considering the difficulties the company has had in scaling its service, it's easy to imagine the integration process turning into a nightmare for both company employees and its long-suffering user base. Meanwhile, rival instant-by-instant social media service FriendFeed Inc. added search functionality in March, a few weeks after it confirmed a Series A investment from Benchmark Capital.

Summize is said to have $750,000 in angel funding from unidentified investors. The company mentioned an upgrade in a tweet earlier today, but not a deal. -- Paul Bonanos


See June 25 Tech Confidential posts concerning Twitter's recent investment and new investors
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