In an exclusive interview with Media Week, Twitter founder Biz Stone said it would include a search box on users' homepage that will introduce users to brands for a fee.
Twitter has merged its real-time search function, search.twitter.com that was launched a few months ago, on to users' homepage. The function will be powered by in-house search company Summize, acquired last year. Users can now search anything from brands to topics, to people that are being Tweeted about in real time, as well as allowing them to save their searches.
Stone said Twitter was experimenting first with following patterns that were already being established by businesses, to establish how Twitter could add more value, and was drawing on Google's success in search.
He said: "There is a lot of intent with search. Although we haven't specced it out yet, we have a hunch there's opportunity there, as Google has proven. We're looking at how we can help businesses get more value out of Twitter. One way is to introduce users to some of the organisations that are using Twitter for a fee."
Stone conceded the search function didn't to have to be a huge commercial driver for the company initially but said it "needs to show there are revenue potentials with Twitter".
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