Bing links with Facebook and Twitter

MICROSOFT's SEARCH ENGINE Bling, er, Bing is celebrating a small victory over Google by being the first to offer search results from Facebook and Twitter as they're posted.

Google also announced a similar tie-up with Twitter, although the posts will not be available immediately.

The Vole's announcement, made at the Web 2.0 Summit by Microsoft's search head Qi Lu and senior vice president Yusuf Mehdi, is being regarded by the company and some in the press as a win over Google.

So far Bing accounts for 15 per cent of searches online, whereas Google has a market share of more than 70 per cent in almost every western country.

Microsoft's Twitter link-up is still in Beta but will publish tweets to the masses in real-time from today. Its Facebook link will be available "at a later date".

None of the parties revealed financial terms for either deal, but Facebook's chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said "no money changed hands".

Google's Twitter deal was described by Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president of search and user experience as, "A product that showcases how tweets can make search better in the coming months."

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, writing in his blog, didn't rule out more partnerships with other search companies, saying, "We hope more working relationships with organisations in the search business will mean even more variety for users." µ