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Is Google indexing Twitter search?

Google has started ranking Twitter search pages for topics (think hashtag-style words) higher, often making the front page for certain queries. This is despite the fact that Twitter blocks Google's spider from indexing search result pages. Which begs the question, how is Google determining that these Twitter topics merit a high weight?

How will this start changing the game? Josh Korr of Publishing 2.0 reports that about a week ago, four journalists from Washington state began reporting a major local story in collaboration with each other on Twitter. Writes Korr:Those four journalists weren't in the same newsroom. In fact, they all work for different media companies. And here's the best part: Some of them have never even met in person.Could journalists have discovered the same thing we have also been exploring collectively online? That collaboration strengthens a network and draws more readers, not less. I also agree with Korr that news organizations need to start investing in smart journalists who get the power of cooperation. To summarize what these fine professionals did: Acted in real time and focused on the reporting of the events - in line with the Twitter culture of immediacy as well as a sense of urgency for their readers at the respective mastheads Collaborated with each other to cover the story as it was unfolding instead of worrying about the credit - imagine the first cross-news organization team that wins a Pulitzer, now wouldn't that be news? Provided higher quality news than just one person doing the reporting. There was some skepticism in the comments to Korr's post. Maybe this is not the first time journalists network for a news story. This collaboration so open on Twitter seems quite novel to me.I know some of my readers are journalists or are studying journalism. What possibilities do you see...

Links to some good resources on using twitter in higher ed.

Article on twitter and faculty members in higher ed. I didn't see anything surprising in the findings!!!

"Botometer (formerly BotOrNot) checks the activity of a Twitter account and gives it a score based on how likely the account is to be a bot. Higher scores are more bot-like. Use of this service requires Twitter authentication and permissions."

Twitt(url)y is a service for tracking what URLs people are talking about as they talk about them on Twitter.

Scanner to block or not follow people that have a certain number of followers or a ratio of following to followers that is too skewed.

a little thingiemajigger here. It'll check the number of followers of everyone on your contact list, the number of people they are following, and the ratio between those. If the person is following more than 1000 people (can be customised), and has a Following-to-Followers ratio higher than 1:1 (can be customised), you'll be informed (by a "Block" link).