At the Web 2.0 Summit this morning, Microsoft annouced it has landed a deal with Twitter to offer real time Twitter search results. Qu Li, the head of Microsoft's online division, mentioned the Facebook negotiations before making the Twitter announcement, but said further details won't be available for some time.
A beta of the integration can be found here:
http://www.bing.com/twitter
Here is a screenshot:
"We are going to get access to all the public Twitter information in real time," Microsoft's VP of Microsoft's online audience business group, Yusuf Mehdi said. As for the Facebook deal: "The other deal we have done will come with all the publically available data on Facebook, and services from that will come at a later date."
Facebook already has a business relationship with Microsoft, which provides Facebook's search results. Microsoft spent $240 million two years ago to acquire a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook.
In a blog posting, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone indicated the Microsoft partnership isn't exclusive.
Not to be outdone, Google announced a few hours later that they also reached a deal with Twitter, but it would be a while before integration could be viewed.
"Google and Twitter!! Yay!!" writes Google's Marissa Mayer in a tweet, linking to a post on the Official Google Blog outlining and explaining the search giant's new arrangement with the micro-blogging service.
"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," Mayer writes in the post. "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, you'll find tweets from other users who are there and sharing the latest and greatest information."
Microsoft shares gained 21 cents Wednesday to close at $26.58 while Google shares fell 62 cents to $551.10.