Since we immerse ourselves in tech-gossip and speculation, we can’t help but recoil a bit whenever we hear fetishistic fawning over Twitter.

However, we’ll posit a question based on Twitter, Facebook, and the stream.

Many tech pundits have proposed that Twitter’s real value may belong in real time search. As users, we’ve loved using Twitter search. We’ve confirmed celebrity sightings, parade origins, and site uptimes using the service. It’s very exciting and surprisingly useful. Whether the general public finds it as useful is a totally different question. Speculation over its potential impact on Twitter’s revenue is just as conditional.

In recent weeks, pundits have wondered if Facebook’s stream copies (and overpowers) Twitter. It’s a complex question. But we’ve found ourselves asking a slightly different question. Even if Facebook’s stream does overtake Twitter, can it ever have the utility? Real time search in the stream is difficult to imagine due to privacy settings. A public/private hybrid stream might be possible, but it’s also tough to imagine the general public using such a complex system.

Without publicly searchable stream information, Facebook may have an exciting product, but its utility is restricted to the social graph. Facebook might argue that’s a good thing. But people trying to find different types of information will still go to Twitter.