Twitter exceeds 800 million search queries per day

Twitter now averages more than 800 million search queries per day, translating to over 24 billion per month--far behind Google (88 billion searches per month) but far ahead of Yahoo (9.4 billion) and Microsoft's Bing (4.1 billion). Speaking at the Aspen Ideas Festival, the microblogging giant's co-founder Biz Stone said Twitter search queries have increased 33 percent since April. At last month's World Innovation Forum, Stone argued that despite public perception, Twitter is "not a social network," adding "That's been a myth since the beginning. We're much more like an information network or a source of news."

In early June, Twitter COO Dick Costolo said the service now attracts 190 million visitors per month, with users generating 65 million tweets per day. As of mid-April, Twitter is adding 300,000 new users daily. New users include free-agent NBA superstar LeBron James [1], who is scheduled to formally announce his professional future Thursday night--James joined Twitter on July 6, and already boasts close to 300,000 followers. James is also using Twitter to solicit fan questions about his decision.

Earlier this week, Twitter expanded into digital commerce services with the launch of Earlybird Exclusive Offers, promising time-sensitive deals to users who follow the @earlybird tweet stream. According to Twitter, @earlybird deals are created expressly for the Twitter community--advertiser partners will determine the terms of each promotion, including availability, amount and price, with Twitter earning a cut of resulting revenues. The concept parallels social commerce services like Groupon and Woot, which also offer limited-time deals to registered consumers--the Twitter Help Center [2] suggests future evolutions of @earlybird could include location-sensitive offers as well as bargains tied to specific merchandise categories, like fashion or music.

For more on Twitter's search growth:
- read this Fast Company article [3]

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Twitter [5] bans third-party advertising alternatives
Twitter [6] unveils Promoted Tweets ad effort
Twitter [7] for iPhone hits the App Store
Twitter [8]'s Tweetie acquisition fuels developer anxiety