The Library of Congress has announced a partnership with networking site Twitter. Twitter is donating its archives of tweets to the Library of Congress, going back to the first one posted by co-founder Jack Dorsey on March 21, 2006.
The Library of Congress will store tweets to provide researchers a better way to revert to discussions of significant events. Only tweets meant for public viewing will be available. Accounts with restrictive privacy settings will not be included. Also, the Library of Congress will not be able to offer access to specific tweets until six months after they are posted.
In a related announcement, internet search services provider Google announced plans to roll out a new tool that will allow people to sift through Twitter messages about specific topics by day, month or year. Only tweets going back to February 11, 2010 will be available initially. Google eventually expects to gain access to all the messages dating back to Twitter's birth.
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