Microblogging service Twitter is in advanced talks with Google Inc and Microsoft Corp about licensing its data feed to the companies’ search engines, a Web blog associated with the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

Twitter’s discussions with Microsoft and Google are being conducted separately and would allow each company to incorporate the 140-character messages, or “tweets,” that Twitter is known for into their Internet search results.

The ability to cull through the flood of tweets as they are posted, known as real time search, is gaining popularity as an important new way to search the Internet for up-to-the-minute information on the latest news events and happenings.

Twitter in Google, Microsoft licensing talks: report | Technology | Reuters