Twitter is aiming to enhance its search function with new link crawling and reputation ranking systems.

At the TiEcon2009 event last week, Santosh Jayaram of Twitter said that the microblogging site will soon index the content of pages that are linked to within individual tweets, CNET News reports.

It will also set up a system that ranks trend-related queries' search results by the reputations of the Twitter members whose tweets come up in listings.

Mr Jayaram declined to divulge details on exactly how Twitter would go about assessing its users' reputations, however.

Rafe Needleman of CNET News said that the changes could "make [Twitter] an even more credible competitor to Google Search for people looking for very timely content".

Twitter first launched its real-time search offering at the end of April this year.

Users can harness the function to search for trends and events mentioned in others' tweets as they take place.

They can also create new timelines based on particular searches in addition to their usual update stream and save individual queries if they use them on a regular basis.

"Built on our search technology, trends are a compelling if rudimentary way to explore a collective global consciousness," said Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter.