Twitter buys startup that analyzes online sharing

Julpan on Wednesday announced that Twitter has bought the startup that specializes in sifting relevant or important data from blogs, tweets, and other online social content.

Julpan was founded last year by Ori Allon, the Israel-born computer scientist who created a highly praised "Orion" search engine.

Google bought the rights to Orion in 2006 and incorporated it into the Internet titan's technology. Allon worked at Google until leaving to start Julpan.

Allon's latest venture, based in New York City, was devoted to insightfully determining in real time what people are sharing with social networking services and tools.

"We've created innovative, early-alpha-stage search technology that analyzes social activity across the Web to deliver fresh and relevant content to users," Allon said in an online message announcing the acquisition by Twitter.

"With more than 230 million tweets per day on every subject imaginable, Twitter gives us a chance to make an even greater contribution toward instantly bringing people closer to what is most meaningful to them," he added.

Allon gave his new title as a director of engineering at San Francisco-based Twitter. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

(c) 2011 AFP