Exclusive: Guess Who Else Is Coming to Dinner? Twitter-Microsoft Bing Deal Confirmed, but so Is Facebook-Bing.
by Kara Swisher
Posted on October 21, 2009 at 8:41 AM PT
In a stunning one-two punch, Microsoft will announce separate nonexclusive deals today with both Facebook and Twitter to integrate their real-time feeds of status updates into the Bing search service.
According to sources, Microsoft (MSFT) digital head Qi Lu will announce the deal onstage in a few hours at the Web 2.0 Summit.
BoomTown reported earlier today that the Microsoft data-mining deal with Twitter was poised to be announced.
But the addition of Facebook raises the stakes considerably because it has the largest pool of status updates, despite all the hype around Twitter. Facebook has previously stated that it has 40 million updates a day, on average, from its 300 million-plus audience.
Twitter has been talking to Google (GOOG) about a similar arrangement, and, according to sources, so has Facebook.
But the deal is a definite blow to the dominant search engine, since–for the first time–data will be available on Bing that are not available on Google.
Neither of the services is expected to be up and running for weeks, if not months. But there is the possibility of a demo today by Qi Lu of what it will look like.
What’s interesting about the deals, which have been in the works for several weeks, is that they will be very different.
Much of what is posted on Twitter is public by design, while Facebook users prefer the closed nature of the service to disperse a wide variety of personal information only to their friends, and they want to control it.
Thus, sources said, not all Facebook updates will be included in the real-time feed to be searched by Bing, but only those its users choose to make available to the wider public. Facebook will apparently provide users with a number of new tools to do so.
BoomTown first reported several weeks ago that Twitter was in advanced talks with both the search rivals about such a real-time search arrangement.
When asked about the talks onstage at Web 2.0 yesterday, Twitter CEO Evan Williams turned coy, according to numerous reports, joking “Whose deals?”
But, in fact, the San Francisco-based microblogging service was very much engaged in dealmaking aimed at gaining more visibility for the billions of tweets from its 54 million monthly users.
And so was Facebook, and it is probably a little irksome to Twitter that the rival social networking site will steal some of the thunder over the deal, which is sure to break out in the blogosphere today.
The two services represent the hugest trove of real-time and content-sharing information, generated from their massive data streams.
The deals with Microsoft might include a payment of several million dollars to both Facebook and Twitter, along with various revenue-sharing proposals that would give them a piece of the advertising revenue made from search results.
Doing these kinds of data deals with big search players does make a lot of sense, since it would be hard for both companies to turbocharge their own search engines without running into the big cash-laden guns at both Google and Microsoft, which recently launched the Bing search service.
Being deeply integrated into big search services would give both companies an even huger footprint.
Microsoft did a small experiment this past summer by integrating Twitter data into search results, starting with tweets of bloggers like me.
And the company provides search services to the Silicon Valley-based Facebook, part of a major investment deal it made several years ago.
Both Microsoft and Google had separately contemplated buying Twitter and Facebook in deals that never materialized.
But, if they both strike data deals with Twitter and Facebook, they will get the next best thing–an ability to offer all that real-time information to the masses from its most innovative sources.
Comments
wow this is getting interesting. these are very smart deals from the Microsoft camp as it gets Bing deeper into real-time data thats very beneficial for advertisers. especially as the semantic web starts to emerge and the ability to analyze and target in real-time is essential.
Posted by peter bordes at October 21st, 2009 at 9:19 am“In a stunning one-two punch, Microsoft will announce separate nonexclusive deals today with both Facebook and Twitter to integrate their real-time feed of status updates into the Bing search service.”
Nonexclusive with respect to whom? If to Google, this doesn’t seem all that newsworthy to me.
Posted by Chris Nunciato at October 21st, 2009 at 10:39 amLOL — maybe allthingsd, WSJ, Digg, etc. should also think about monetizing their firehoses? (or would that be garden hoses?
nmw
Posted by Norbert Mayer-Wittmann at October 21st, 2009 at 10:55 amC:
All due respect, but it is a big story.
Posted by Kara Swisher at October 21st, 2009 at 11:17 amN:
That would be drippy faucets. But really, really drippy.
Posted by Kara Swisher at October 21st, 2009 at 11:17 amP:
Well said.
Posted by Kara Swisher at October 21st, 2009 at 11:18 amAs a technology has-been, there are parts of the Internet that start to look like a dog eating its own tail. This is certainly one example.
Posted by Mac Beach at October 21st, 2009 at 11:24 amKara, great post. I actually wrote a post ( http://bit.ly/GMFYG ) about a conversation I had with a Google employee about why and how they should do this. I guess Google should be even more worried now
The interesting thing will be how the UI for this works — have you heard anything about that? If its including status updates in people search, that’s interesting, but if it’s using the updates as separate content, or as contextual information around links, that would be huge.
The contextual layer on top of current links is most interesting to me: I did a mockup of what I think that type of integration might look like (it’s quick and ugly, but hopefully gets the point across): http://bit.ly/23wZYc
Now, let’s see if Google responds!
Posted by Tyler Willis at October 21st, 2009 at 11:39 amKara,
maybe — but it’s not really the faucet or the hose as much as the QUALITY of the liquid coming out, right?
;D nmw
Posted by Norbert Mayer-Wittmann at October 21st, 2009 at 11:54 am“such a real-time search arrangement.”
not “such an real-time search arrangement.”
Posted by Jonathan Davis at October 21st, 2009 at 12:59 pmLike Chairman Mao, “swimming” the Yang Tse with the aid of youthful frogmen below, the Gang of Redmond try to keep their party boat aloft…
Posted by John Bailo at October 21st, 2009 at 3:21 pmAm I the only one who thinks this alone is big news? Public status feeds and compelling clients for consuming them will make Facebook a straightforward and compelling replacement for Twitter.
Posted by hans gerwitz at October 21st, 2009 at 3:35 pmDon’t get me wrong — the enhancements are a story, agreed. I just think characterizing the story as some kind of a “one-two punch” to an implied Google is silly, since it’s the deal is, as you say, “nonexclusive.”
To wit:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009.....l-netowrk/
Posted by Chris Nunciato at October 21st, 2009 at 4:34 pm@hans that exists today, when posting a status update you can set it to public and it can then show up in Facebook Search for people who are not your friends.
Definitely a big deal for Facebook, they are making the move from closed by default to more open and they seem to be doing a really good job of it, this is another step in that direction.
Posted by Tyler Willis at October 21st, 2009 at 6:10 pmGoogle never wanted to share the wealth nor the secrets to search with Twitter or Facebook. It also makes sense now…google announcing earlier this month that it was abandoning page rank in favor of behavioral targeting {http://www.sweetbusinesses.com/?p=69}. The search wars are going to be very exciting. And the holiday season is quickly approaching!
Posted by LaTease Rikard at October 22nd, 2009 at 5:18 amKara thanks for the coverage. this is going to make our world more interesting than ever before. exciting first step.
this is a very big story
Posted by peter bordes at October 22nd, 2009 at 9:18 amM:
I don’t agree. This is a very important move for both Google and Microsoft.
Posted by Kara Swisher at October 22nd, 2009 at 8:11 pmT:
Microsoft has it up and it is pretty nice.
Posted by Kara Swisher at October 22nd, 2009 at 8:11 pmN:
Yes, we have quality drips.
Posted by Kara Swisher at October 22nd, 2009 at 8:13 pmJ:
Fixed! Thanks!
Posted by Kara Swisher at October 22nd, 2009 at 8:14 pmJ:
Now that is an unusual metaphor.
Posted by Kara Swisher at October 22nd, 2009 at 8:14 pmH:
Well, FB still has to biggest status update pool. But Twitter has all the hype.
Posted by Kara Swisher at October 22nd, 2009 at 8:15 pmC:
We’ll have to disagree.
Posted by Kara Swisher at October 22nd, 2009 at 8:16 pmT:
Exactly.
Posted by Kara Swisher at October 22nd, 2009 at 8:17 pmL:
Game on!
Posted by Kara Swisher at October 22nd, 2009 at 8:19 pmP:
Thanks. Say hi to your sister!
Posted by Kara Swisher at October 22nd, 2009 at 8:20 pm