A little more detail on TechCrunch which adds a European dimension to the news.

Interesting timing with news in today’s DT that the Chancellor is due to postpone the launch of a rescue fund for technology companies that investors say are being starved of venture capital.

Twitter Acquires Summize

“There aren’t many surprises in web technology given how well the media and the blogs cover the sector. And it’s even more so with our portfolio company Twitter which seems to attract a lot of attention for a host of well known reasons.

“Last month Twitter announced a financing but it was old news by then. Today, Twitter announced that it has acquired the leading Twitter search engine Summize. That was also widely reported last week and so it’s a bit of old news.

“But even though it’s old news, I think it’s big news. Twitter will now allow you to follow not only people but also ideas, concepts, names, thoughts, etc. And they will do that natively and via the API.  Those who follow the microblogging sector closely certainly have seen the potential of this, but now we can see it in action and use it.

“I wrote a short blog post on the Union Square Ventures blog about this transaction. Summize investor John Borthwick of Betaworks has a terrific blog post on the transaction on his blog.  And of course TechCrunch has a post on it as well.”

PS: wonder if the incoming smart engineers from Summize will also help avoid Twitter downtimes?  Should their logo be looking up a whale’s behind? Poll moment.