Is it me or the sole idea of Twitter killing Google sounds incredibly ridiculous?

I don't think it's as much Twitter killing Google, as it is a recognition that there's something new bubbling up, where Twitter is the poster child. While Google has dominated traditional search, this might be an area where one can grab a foothold. That's as much as I read into it.

Having read both of these, I can't really see why Google could simply refine its existing news section to incorporate ephemeral data.

I have routinely found recent HN posts on Google -indexed a matter of minutes or hours after they were created. Google knows the value of up-to-the minute information and I am sure they are working on solutions.