Bing Gets Closer to Real-Time with Twitter, Facebook Deals

Microsoft’s Bing just got a little bit closer to delivering real-time search results through a pair of data deals with Facebook and Twitter.

Speaking on stage at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Dr. Qi Lu, president of Microsoft’s Online Services Division, told the crowd that Bing will begin offering a real-time index of Tweets, tools for filtering Twitter search results, and the top Tweets on a topic.

The beta of Bing Twitter search is only available in the U.S.

A search on Bing Twitter will bring up the most recent Tweets on the search topic, as well as top links shared on Twitter about the topic.

Tweets can be sorted by time, or by a Bing-defined “best match,” which will include factors like the Tweeter’s popularity, “interestingness” of the Tweet, and “other indicators of quality and trustworthiness,” according to a Microsoft spokesperson.

Bing Twitter will also include a listing of the hottest topics on Twitter, along with the top links shared on Twitter about those topics.

Details on the Facebook partnership are less clear. Dr. Lu said that the deal is coming, but a spokesperson would only say that a “global partnership with Facebook that will bring public Facebook status updates to Bing search results” will be available “at a later date.”