Bing + Twitter = success?

Fwd Tech  Friday 03 July 2009

Microsoft Bing introduces real-time Twitter search

Microsoft Bing has slowly but surely been nibbling away at Google since the search engine launched a few months ago. And now the big M has announced that Bing will add real-time search data from Twitter – so you can keep up to date with your favourite celebrities’ shenanigans.

The move by Microsoft is an attempt to integrate more real-time data into Bing’s search results and currently only limited to the more celebrity Twitterers, so you won’t find your mate Dave’s update on there.

So, how does it work? Well, type in a celebrity name, such as well-known Al Gore or Danny Sullivan, and their latest tweets come up in real-time on Bing’s search results. You’re also given the option to see “more tweets” from said celebrity. Microsoft’s not indexing all of Twitter at this time, just a small, prominent section of it, but if it’s a success, you can bet millions more will be added.

Microsoft Bing currently holds 8.23 per cent of the search space according to StatCounter, while Google holds a massive 78.48 per cent. If real-time search data for Twitter takes off, expect those figures to change.