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Bing Indexes Twitter ahead of Google
Bing made an important step forward today as it got a first-mover advantage over Google, with a bold decision to start actively indexing tweets from prolific Twitter users.
Why bold? Well Microsoft has got enough on its plate trying to compete with Google in the digital media market. By giving prominence to tweets in their Bing search engine, Microsoft are effectively handing free online advertising to Twitter and promoting a rival product for its excellent real-time search capacity.
In their Bing blog, Microsoft said: “There has been much discussion of real-time search and the premium on immediacy of data that has been created primarily on Twitter. We’ve been watching this phenomenon with great interest, and listening carefully to what consumers really want in this space.”
Google has given a prominence to various social networking sites in its search results, notably Facebook profiles, but the internet giant is hesitant to take the step that Microsoft has and willingly promote Twitter. Google would rather suppress Twitter, as tweets quickly become synonymous with real-time data.
At this stage, Bing will not index the whole of Twitter, rather it will focus on a core of a few thousand Twitter users depending on the number of followers they have and how often they tweet. According to reports from The New York Times, Bing will update Twitter results every 60 seconds, hence why the service will start with a few users and gradually grow if it becomes more popular.
Micrsoft’s decision has scored a useful point against Google, and gives them an edge in immediacy over the world’s most popular search engine. In the ongoing struggle, this round goes to Bing.
Microsoft News posted by Albert Reeves on 02 July 2009
