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Microsoft and Twitter decide to stick together, see where things go

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Twitter and Microsoft Bing have extended the partnership that gives the Redmond company’s search engine the ability to include a real-time view of tweets in its search results. The deal is notable in part because Google and Twitter previously failed to reach a deal to extend the search giant’s access to the so-called Twitter Firehose of data.

Microsoft and Twitter announced the agreement this afternoon — skipping the traditional news release and going public with the news like a couple of lovebirds … on Twitter, of course.

Tweeted Bing: “@Twitter Been thinking about our last 2 yrs together. Instantly tapping into the wisdom of the Twitter community. Good times.”

Responded Twitter: “@bing Totally! Search w/o Twitter = old news. You & @MSN are amazing at using Tweets to make search better & help people stay in the know.”

Answered Bing: “@Twitter Let’s say we stick together and do bigger and better things?”

Microsoft’s Stefan Weitz then suggested they “get a room.”

Via email, a Microsoft representative confirmed the news. “We are pleased to announce that we are extending our collaboration with Twitter.” No further details were released.

  • Guest

    Google has indexed literally billions of web pages without first obtaining permission. Why can’t it simply index Twitter as well?

    • http://geekwire.com Todd Bishop

      Google does do that, and tweets still show up in Google search results after they’re indexed, but my understanding is that the firehose is essentially a real-time data stream that lets Bing show tweets as they happen. Much more timely, which is particularly important with Twitter.

      • Guest

        By indexing Twitter much more frequently (say, once per second) Google could effectively create its own firehose.

        Google could use servers located throughout “the cloud” to cloak its identity, appearing like untold millions of anonymous voyeurs to the eyes of Twitter’s sysadmins. Heck, they could even build the functionality into a new Chrome update and get the data directly from users as they surf the Twitter site.

        Google has a lot of smart employees. Why pay companies for content you can spider for free?

        • Newman

          google has so few “smart” employees. Just a lot of trust-funder, silver spoon types.

          • Paul

            Seems to be sufficient to keep taking share.

        • Paul

          If Google thought they could get the same content for free, you can be sure they would have. And then of course there’s that small problem of looking like a hypocrite when you accuse MS of scraping results.

          • Guest

            There is no such thing as “hypocrisy” in the tech world, Paul. Every innovation you see is a repudiation of previous thinking. Google shall continue to scrape and innovate regardless of its competitors’ actions.

            “Hypocrite” is a label used by stubborn men who lack vision to slander those who are self-critical and obsessed with improvement. It is only an insult in that it reveals the accuser’s small-mindedness.