The tool, developed over the past year by Andrey Petrov, allows users to track activity in their social networks on Twitter (and other sites including Facebook) over time, based on friends or followers who have joined or left as well as mentions of their name or brand.

Petrov said on his site that “the SocialGrapple team is joining Google” and that he was “looking forward to taking these ideas to the next level and revealing metrics on an incredibly larger scale”.

Terms of the deal have not been disclosed so it is not clear if Google has acquired the intellectual property behind SocialGrapple as well as bringing Petrov on board.

• Scotland’s national tourist body VisitScotland has become the first UK organisation to sign up for Google Analytics Premium – the new paid-for version of the popular site analytics tool. VisitScotland has signed up for the service through an authorised UK reseller.