Blogs clash over whether Google could buy Twitter

TechCrunch proprietor Michael Arrington, citing three unnamed sources, said on Thursday night that Google would pay for Twitter in cash, stock or a combination of the two.

The companies are also considering working together on a Google real-time search engine, he wrote.

Hours after Arrington's blog entry, Kara Swisher reported on her Boomtown blog said the story was inaccurate, citing a number of sources.

In fact, Twitter and Google have simply been engaged in 'some product-related discussions,' according to one source, Swisher wrote.

Arrington could not be immediately reached for comment. TechCrunch stands by its story, said Robin Wauters, a blogger for the site who answered an e-mail directed at Arrington.

Twitter is a service that allows people to send short text messages to a network of friends. Its popularity is growing, particularly among journalists looking for new ways to get people to read their news and commentary.

The San Francisco, California-based company has yet to make any money. That has not stopped the technology world from speculating on who will scoop up the company, though co-founder Biz Stone told Reuters in March that it is not considering a merger or a buyout.

A Google spokeswoman declined to comment. Twitter could not be reached for comment.

Boomtown is a blog on the website All Things Digital, which is owned by Wall Street Journal Dow Jones & Co. That company, in turn, is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

(Reporting by Robert MacMillan in New York and Vikram S Subhedar in Bangalore)