Google & Twitter

From the official Google post:

"We believe that our search results and user experience will greatly benefit from the inclusion of this up-to-the-minute data, and we look forward to having a product that showcases how tweets can make search better in the coming months. That way, the next time you search for something that can be aided by a real-time observation, say, snow conditions at your favorite ski resort; youll find tweets from other users who are there and sharing the latest and greatest information."

Google isnt the only search engine to get its hands on this valuable data, Bing was also included in the agreement and have been quick to act with Bing Twitter Search already available for US searchers. So if youre based in the US, feel free to take Bing Twitter Search for a test drive here.

While this is big news for both search engines, Bing might just have the upper hand in real-time search as they also have a deal with Facebook to add public Facebook updates to its search results as well. The Facebook/Bing deal isnt exclusive, so I guess the next step for Google would be to start negotiations with Facebook.

So why is this data so valuable to Google and Bing?
Erick Schonfeld from TechCrunch provides a great explanation which I have shared below:

"Tweets and other real-time data streams are valuable to Google and Bing because for many types of searches (news, events, sports, stocks, shopping, etc.), the most recent information is often the most relevant. And its hard to beat millions of people Tweeting out their thoughts"the pulse of the planet, if you will"for real-time information about every subject imaginable. Google and Bing need access to this stream of data if they want to keep their results fresh and relevant."

There has been no word yet on specifically how Google plans to integrate this data into the search results. Will it be a separate search like Google Books or Google News? Or simply integrated through the normal search? I guess we will have to wait and see.

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Tag: Google, Twitter

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