Topsy, one of the last remaining Twitter search and analytics companies, has been purchased by Apple for $200 million as reported today by the Wall Street Journal.
Apple has confirmed the purchase, but wouldn’t make any comments beyond the following statement:
Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.
Topsy is by far the most full-featured Twitter search service, with an index that includes all tweets in existence. Future plans for Topsy remain unclear at the time of this writing, but some in the industry are speculating that it may be integrated with Apple’s iOS which already includes a scaled down Twitter search feature.
The Wall Street Journal also speculated in the report that Apple may integrate Topsy with iTunes Radio to alert users about songs and artists that are trending on Twitter.
Apple has ventured into the social networking realm before to a lukewarm response from users. Remember Ping? One would hope that they have learned from previous blunders and have big plans in store for Topsy.
What do you think Apple should do with Topsy? I’d love to hear some of your thoughts in the comments section!
