Google Brings Back Tweets To Its Mobile Search Results After 4 Year Hiatus

The next time you search Google on your phone you'll also find real-time search results pulled from Twitter as the tech giant announced Tuesday that it will once again feature tweets.

Google had shown tweets in its search results until 2011, when its deal with Twitter expired. But now that Twitter is struggling mightily to gain users, the two companies have forged a deal that returns tweets to Google search results. The tweets will first appear in English searches done on mobile devices, but over time, Google said it will bring tweets to desktop search results as well as those conducted in other languages.

"Now when you’re searching on the Google app or any browser on your phone or tablet, you can find real-time content from Twitter right in the search results," Google said in a blog post Tuesday. "Whether you’re interested in the latest from Taylor Swift, news about the #MadMenFinale, or updates on the NBA playoffs, you’ll have access to it directly from Google."

This is a huge win for Google, which has struggled to get users to open up its mobile app more often. By bringing real-time content from Twitter onto its app, more users may skip using Twitter and instead head to Google when they want the most up-to-date search results.

For Twitter, this was a necessary move as user growth has slowed to a crawl. By exposing its content to users beyond its own closed walls, Twitter may be able to pick up more users and attract more eyeballs to its advertisements. But the deal will be worthless if Twitter can't get those Google users to sign up for accounts and remain active on the real-time social network.