As the web reels over the news of the Yahoo Microsoft partnership, Twitter quietly enhances its own search service. On Tuesday, Twitter ramped up this search engine function, which now allows users to query current tweets to find out what is happening in the Twittersphere.

As a search engine, Twitter is a more valuable tool. In fact, some might argue that Twitter is more useful as a search engine than as a tweeting forum. For one, users can search Twitter in real-time. I did a quick search for “Microsoft and Yahoo,” and immediately came up with ten Tweets that occurred in the last thirty seconds. I would say that’s real-time.

Another upside to the Twitter search engine is that it’s open to the general public. One does not need to sign up or sign in to Twitter in order to take advantage of the helpful search function. That’s a good thing, since ‘the general public’ may not be part of Twitter. Or, if they’re like me they signed up on Twitter, didn’t use it, forgot their username, and now are part of the shockingly large number of seldom-tweeters.

Behind the search engine function is a history of Twitter’s acquisition of Summize, a Twitter search engine. As one of the multitude of Twitter piggy-backers, Summize hit upon an idea that Twitter thought was nearly as smart as their own—give people the ability to read Tweets that are happening right now. Marrying the search function with the Twitter main page is the perfect solution to a better facility for search-and-tweet action.

Beyond just a cool tool, the founder of Twitter, Biz Stone, says that this is about making Twitter a bit more user-friendly: “Helping people access Twitter in more relevant and useful ways upon first introduction lowers the barrier to accessing the value Twitter has to offer, and presents the service more consistently with how it has evolved.” In other words, people who visit will be more likely to join and use. That’s the goal at least.

The new format helps out. At the top of Twitter’s newly redesigned home page is a can’t-miss-it invitation to “share and discover what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world.” The search box is labeled, “See what people are saying about…” If people are drawing a blank and don’t know what to search for, Twitter invites you to check out their popular topics by the minute, day, and week.

But how valuable is reading someone else’s stream-of-consciousness? Few are devoted to the actual value of reading another’s description of their breakfast, tweeted moments ago. However, judging by our addiction to blogs, Facebook status updates, and constant Tweeting, it is rather entertaining to check out this kind of real-time information on friends and celebrities. Besides, as the New York Times insightfully pointed out, it gives us the opportunity “to peer into the world’s collective brain.” Surely there is value in that.

If Survivor is king of reality TV shows, then Twitter is king of reality Internet and social media. So what do you get when you mix the two together? Well, that’s a question that Twitter and Reveille and Brillstein Entertainment aren’t quite ready to answer with great clarity. However, Brillstein’s Jon Liebman is quite confident when he declares, “we’ve found a compelling way to bring the immediacy of Twitter to life on TV.” This announcement came on Tuesday when Twitter and Reveille and Brillstein Entertainment announced their upcoming joint project.

As if Twitter weren’t popular enough before, adding the TV element is certain to gain users from a less tech-savvy viewership. What’s next? FTV? Facebook TV? Or perhaps, rather than buying newspapers, Google will start its own television network? With Twitter at the forefront of this new media mixture, only time will tell if others will follow the Twitter vision for television.

Using Twitter in reality TV shows will certainly add a new element of reality. For many people, the Internet is a place to share private things they probably wouldn’t even be willing to mention to coworkers or close friends. Ironically though, those same coworkers are a part of their social network, and through the Internet they know they still sleep with a stuffed animal, used to weigh 30 pounds less, and can find at their fingertips 25 other embarrassing facts that they really never wanted to know about in the first place.

This is what adding Twitter to reality TV will give to the new show. Information you never needed to know about someone you don’t really know, but information that you’re dying to know because you feel like you know this person as well as your own brother. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see when the first season opens up. Meanwhile, you can tweet about it, if you want.

Twitter is the hottest microblogging site on the planet. As 25 million Twitter addicts tweet their way through life, several tech giants have cast the eager eye of acquisition on the young company. It was no surprise when rumors leaked of Google, Microsoft, and Facebook’s interest in buying Twitter. But it really raised the eyebrows when notable, and oh-so-reliable, sources began murmuring about an Apple takeover.

The Cost
The price tag on a proposed Twitter buyout could reach $700 million, maybe higher. Twitter said no to $500 millionish offers from other tech giants. Apple, sitting on a $30 billion pile of cash, has the chutzpah throw the price tag up a couple hundred million. But isn’t that a lot of money for a social networking site? As history tells us (Facebook and MySpace) social networking sites aren’t exactly the most profitable businesses. Why would Apple spend so much money on Twitter?

Could Twitter be different? Or maybe it’s Apple that’s different, and will be able to capitalize in a way that only Steve Jobs could conceive of. Either way, Apple is rumored to spend a sizeable chunk of their well-earned cash to buy a website—a website where people tell their followers what they ate for lunch.

The Reason
When Apple makes a move, you can be sure it is a calculated and thought-through move. As techies ruminate on the proposed Apple-Twitter union, one word comes to mind: iPhone. Although you can tweet without an iPhone, the cool iPhone apps that help you tweet like a pro are only available through Apple…and an iPhone. Although it seems like small brick upon which to build a castle, this could be a driving reason why Apple may make the purchase. But then again, Apple may have something new in the works that may make a Twitter purchase make perfect sense.

The Timeline
As with all Apple rumors, we won’t know the truth until June 8, when Apple holds the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, California.