Twitter Searches Now Added to Bing

Microsoft's new search engine looks to capture the real-time Web.
 
By Paul McDougall
InformationWeek
July 2, 2009 08:42 AM
 
Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) has added a feature to Bing that allows the search engine to query the Internet for so-called real-time data, including postings from Twitter users.
 
"There has been much discussion of real-time search and the premium on immediacy of data that has been created primarily by Twitter," said Sean Suchter, general manager for Microsoft's Search Technology Center in Silicon Valley, in a blog post Wednesday.
 
InformationWeek's Mitch Wagner demonstrates how to "get good" at Twitter. At Web 2.0 Expo Spring 2009, InformationWeek editor-at-large David Berlind catches up with Kosmix director of product management Vijay Chittoor to look at Kosmix's unique search site which is designed for people looking to explore certain topics. At first blush, 8K Miles appears like any other IT contractor marketplace on the Web (eLance, oDesk, etc.).
InformationWeek's Mitch Wagner demonstrates how to "get good" at Twitter.
"Today we're unveiling an initial foray into integrating more real-time data into our search results, starting with some of the more prominent and prolific Twitterers from a variety of spheres," wrote Suchter.
 
Among the Twitterers that Bing will index at the outset are Wall Street Journal tech columnist Kara Swisher and a number of Microsoft staffers. Bing will index "a few thousand" Twitter users in the project's early days, Suchter said.
 
"We're not indexing all of Twitter at this time..just a small set of prominent and prolific Twitterers to start," he wrote. The index includes Tweets from Al Gore, American Idol's Ryan Seacrest, and a number of other high-profile figures from the arts, politics, and technology.
 
Microsoft is looking to make a bigger splash in the search market. Through the first nine months of 2008 the company committed more than $1.5 billion to acquiring search, or search-driven businesses—including a $1.3 billion buyout of enterprise specialists Fast Search & Transfer.
 
It's positioning Bing not just as a search site, but as a so-called "decision engine." Bing includes features that allow users to book travel and engage in other e-commerce transactions with just a few clicks.
 
Redmond hopes to catch up to Google (NSDQ: GOOG) in search market share. But it's got its work cut out. Google presently controls about 65% of the U.S. search market, while Microsoft owns only about 8% of the market, according to ComScore. Yahoo, the number two player, held 20% of the market, as of May.
 
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