Twitter has announced a new search engine that not only will bring back relevant tweets but also pictures and video.

Key to this is the second part of the announcment which is the long rumoured integrated image and video hosting option. It will be available via all of Twitter's offical mobile apps. (including Tweetdeck?) I suspect this will mean all new or relatively light users will immediatley simply make the switch without thinking, and never go back to Twitpic or Yfrog images.

There are other users though for who the images they post are more significant than the service they use. This move could have implications for users who have built up significant collections of images on Flickr or Posterous. It's also going to be tough for new kids on the block like Instagram and Color who, despite carving niches of their own, could face an uphill battle to keep users in the face of a well-integrated Twitter image and video service.

This is another step in broadening the Twitter experience too. We know that advertisers are keen for more opportunities to get in front of the millions of global eyeballs looking at the site. Until now photo-sharing pages from the likes have Twitpic have been one way of doing it. Perhaps now we could see them buying space on Twitter's own photo pages?

Also look out for all the Apple references in the video above. What could they be about hmmm?