An AOL tipster tells us incoming CEO Tim Armstrong, the Google sales veteran, wants to buy Twitter, the hot message-broadcasting startup. One problem: He hasn't even started at AOL yet.

Armstrong's first day is April 7, but according to our source, he's had his eye on the startup for a while: "He's apparently loved it ever since Google, and it would make AOL instantly cool again, since we don't have anything good except for TMZ."

It's not clear if there are any talks, just rumors of Armstrong's desire to get his hands on Twitter. He shares that apparent interest with his former colleagues at Google, who are in the process of getting collectively shamed into some kind of Twitter partnership or acquisition by Silicon Valley's Twitter-happy punditocracy. In that field, though, Armstrong has an advantage: When it comes to buying things merely for their perceived coolness, AOL is absolutely shameless.