Microsoft Integrates Twitter Data In Bing Search Results

In a bid to snare some breathing space in the web search domain and bolstering up the significance of real-time search, Microsoft has started adding Twitter updates to its Bing search results. 

In a blog posting, Microsoft notified that the company was drawn for the micro-bloging website's ability to touch the hot topics and instantly reflect public sentiments.

From now, Microsoft's Bing will be initially indexing a few thousand users on the basis of their followers count and number of tweets, including Ashton Kutcher and Al Gore, notified Sean Suchter, general manager of Microsoft's Silicon Valley Search Technology Centre.

He further highlighted the move by saying, “We've been watching this phenomenon with great interest, and listening carefully to what consumers really want in this space. We're not indexing all of Twitter at this time... just a small set of prominent and prolific Twitterers to start”.

With this move, Microsoft seems to capitalise on the soaring popularity of the micro-blogging phenomenon Twitter, and attempt to refine internet search by adding real-time search capabilities to it. 

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In related news, data from StatCounter revealed that the new Bing has increased Microsoft's share in the search domain by 1 percent in the US in June, still trailing behind Google and Yahoo by a huge margin.

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Our Comments
Nice move from Microsoft which introduced a feature before Google or Yahoo. Real time search could differentiate Microsoft from Google in the short term and there are already signs that Google's stranglehold has been very slightly loosened.

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