Wednesday, Oct 21, 2009    Text size: 

Microsoft has entered into a deal with micro-blogging giant Twitter that would give users of its Bing search engine results which include tweets from Twitter. A similar deal was struck with Facebook, to index posts made on that network as well.

The news comes on the heels of the launch of the Wowd search engine which also includes results from Twitter and other social networks.

Search giant Google jumped on the Twitter bandwagon too, making its announcement mere hours after the Bing deal was signed.

"We look forward to having a product that showcases how tweets can make search better in the coming months," Google Vice President of Search Products, Marissa Mayer, said. "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."

Analysts predict that Twitter may receive millions from the deals— in both an upfront licensing payment along with an ongoing revenue share split of advertising income generated from the listings.

These moves are good news for adult marketers stymied by some of the linking restrictions that are imposed by social networks; as they will now have a better way to seed organic search results — a pursuit which will hopefully not result in increased "spamdexing" of tweets at a level that causes a backlash from the company. Still, the indexing of social networks is a positive step that holds promise for sophisticated operators.