Microsoft's Bing Search Engine Now Tracks Twitter, Facebook

Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal reports: Microsoft confirmed deals Wednesday that give users of its Bing search engine results from what is being posted on Twitter's micro-blogging service and Facebook's social networks.

Microsoft made the announcement at a Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco without giving financial details. An announcement was also posted on Bing's official blog.

Twitter results are now available from Bing in a beta test and the Facebook results will come at an unspecified future date, Microsoft said.

The All Things Digital blog of the Wall Street Journal had previously reported that both Bing and Google Inc.'s search engine could soon get access to search results from Twitter.

In return, Twitter may get an upfront payment in the millions as well as an agreement to share on ad revenue from searches made using Google and Bing, the blog reported.

Now Microsoft has a deal allowing it to post search results from the much larger pool of updates that get posted on Facebook. Microsoft has a $240 million ownership stake in Facebook.

Today's expected announcement is seen giving Microsoft a head start in the race to incorporate postings made on the popular social-networking sites on its search engine.