Google and Twitter are parting ways—for the time being at least. Google has deactivated its Realtime service, which was largely comprised of search results derived from Twitter.
Over the weekend, Search Engine Land reported that Google Realtime disappeared. "We’ve temporarily disabled google.com/realtime," a Google spokesman told the site. "We’re exploring how to incorporate our recently launched Google+ project into this functionality going forward, so stay tuned."
But that isn't the entire story. The suspension of the service coincided with the end of a 2009 agreement between Google and its largest partner in the project, Twitter. Removing Twitter's search results all but paralyzed the service. Now, if one visits the Realtime page, they receive an error page.
Though Realtime has vanished, it is not lost forever. Google told Search Engine Land it expects the service will resurface with improvements. “Our vision is to have google.com/realtime include Google+ information along with other Realtime data from a variety of sources,” the company said. It is not yet clear whether or not Twitter and Google will collaborate on the relaunch of Realtime.
