"From the very beginning this has seemed almost as if it's a news wire coming from everywhere around the world," on Monday. "I think a Twitter News Service would be something that would be very open and shared with many different news organizations around the world."

At the moment, the idea seems more like a trial balloon than a fleshed-out concept. The network doesn't necessarily need to be run by Twitter, but could be a partnership with existing organizations and be open. Sounds kind of vague, eh?

Twitter currently shares its content with Google, Bing and Yahoo, but Stone sees other news outlets benefitting from more specialized access to Twitter's 175 million registered users. What's more, Twitter could play an active role in connecting news gatherers with people at the scene of events where news is breaking.

Following Stone's musings about a news service, Twitter "communications guy" Sean Garrett threw cold water on the idea.

"No plans for 'Twitter news network'," . Later he added, "[Stone] pondered how news orgs could do this on their own (or together). Perhaps w/ direct access to Twitter data all hypothetical."