15 July 2009 | Author: L. Sutherland Head of Media Content

Bing integrates Twitter with BingTweets

Microsoft, continuing its attempt to steal the search thunder from Google, has a new real time search function for Bing that could see the software star streaking ahead of its competitors. A little help from social media darling Twitter could be just the edge Bing needs to capitalise on the early success of its 'decision engine'.

Following headline-grabbing news earlier in the month that Bing had started including tweets in search results, it comes as little surprise that Microsoft's new decision engine has capitalised on the attention with the release of a new real time search interface dubbed BingTweets.

Partnering with Federated Media and Twitter, Bing aims to make it easier for people to enjoy integrated real time search results. Bing's official blog explains that the further integration of real time search results was the next logical step for the search solution that hopes to operate as a 'decision engine'. It states that BingTweets will make the engine more effective because search trends dictate that people are increasingly hoping for real time results in their searches - results that traditional search engines haven't always been successful at returning.

BingTweets adheres to Bing's general raison d'etre, aiming to help people to make better decisions based on the information they search for. The new service means that users can make these decisions through results including both official information and the personal opinions that makes Twitter such an enthralling source of information.

By making use of trends pulled in from Twitter, as well as category filters such as 'people' or 'Popular Now' BingTweets hopes to ensure that users find it easier to navigate the web's ever morphing trends.

Unfortunately, this bigmouth reporter is unable to experiment with the new service at the time of writing as an error message is currently being returned - perhaps due to a large volume of traffic checking how successfully the new service is in fulfilling its claims.

In any case, if Bing pulls off this real-time-search-coup with any sense of finesse, it could deal a hefty blow to main rival Google, which has also been making noises about searching for ways to make use of the increasing demand for real time search functions. And with Bing bagging more hits that Twitter in the US since its launch, an increased partnership between the two is a formidable one indeed.

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