October 21st, 2009
Microsoft lands Facebook, Twitter deals for Bing
Microsoft’s Bing search engine won non-exclusive deals to integrate Twitter and Facebook feeds, officials said at the Web 2.0 conference. The deal may be a sign that Google won’t chase pricey search deals.
The news, first reported by Kara Swisher at BoomTown, could be construed as a punch in Google’s gut (Techmeme). Sam Diaz will have a follow-up post on the Bing deals from the Web 2.0 conference. In a blog post, Microsoft said that search needs to keep up with real-time streams of content.
The big takeaway is that there will be data on Bing that won’t be on Google. Simply put, Microsoft notched a search win here.
However, these wins aren’t cheap. Swisher notes that there will be payments of several million dollars from Microsoft to Twitter and Facebook. Bing is buying market share potentially.
But if you’re a Google shareholder you may be happy about this win. Let Microsoft spend its dough on taking share from future search partner Yahoo. Google’s ability to walk away and not chase silly deals has to be taken as evidence of financial discipline.
In fact, we’ll probably see a lot more Bing wins going forward. Rest assured, Bing will power MySpace search. Why? Google learned its lesson from a $900 million with MySpace that generated little return.
Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Editorial Director of ZDNet sister site TechRepublic. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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