There’s an interesting phenomenon going on involving Twitter and linking. A couple of years ago, when someone would see an interesting piece of content, they would link to it. Today, when this happens, people tweet it. So, what does this mean for link bait?

In this interview with WebProNews, Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz says, “…essentially, Twitter is cannibalizing the Web’s link graph, and it’s doing so in a disproportionate manner for more social media forward industries.”

Although Fishkin does not believe the link graph is disappearing completely, he says it’s growing faster in the social Web than it is in the blogosphere. Google is also picking up on this trend and is paying attention to tweets. According to Fishkin, people can calculate Page Rank with the Twitter graph in the same way people do on the Web. He thinks Google is working with this concept now and expects to see more from them in this area.

Speaking of Google, Mike McDonald asks Fishkin about Google Buzz. From a strategic standpoint, Fishkin believes Google wants to let people know that the social Web and social media are important to them. In addition, Google realizes the amount of sharing and connection that happens through email and wants to leverage it.

There are, however, many issues that have been raised over Google Buzz, as WPN previously reported. While the lasting power of Buzz is still to be determined, Fishkin says SEOs are waiting to where it goes before they fully embrace it.

What are your thoughts regarding link bait in this age of Twitter, and do you believe Google Buzz will stick around?