All A Twitter

But the big news, at least as far as the social media world is concerned, is Twitter. You know, that 140 character micro-blogging site that has suddenly emerged as one of the chief platforms by which businesses and individuals send out pithy messages to all who would read them. Twitter is far behind Facebook in size, but they aren’t really competing with each other – lots of folks use both. Still, with some 50 million users, Twitter has emerged as a force to be reckoned with, something that hasn’t escaped the eyes of big tech companies such as Google and Microsoft.

Twitter has been rumored to be on the auction block despite receiving more than one billion dollars in funding recently. Notable names such as Morgan Stanley, T. Rowe Price, and Benchmark Capital are now standing behind Twitter, pouring vast amounts of cash into a scheme that doesn’t yet make any money. In fact, Twitter is losing millions as it tries to maintain its creaky presence online – we’ve all experienced those brief down times and extended outages, minor annoyances that are easily corrected with a refreshening of the browser.

Licensing Deals

Rumors that Google, Microsoft or even Amazon might buy Twitter have been spread for many months now. Though avid Twitter users would prefer that the microblogger provider remain independent, we all know that consolidation is the name of the game in any industry. You can go it alone for just so long, but the economies of scale require at least some form of outside help if your enterprise is to continue to grow and prosper.

Well, there isn’t a deal in place, but Twitter did sign a pair of licensing agreements with Google and Microsoft that are worth taking note of. Specifically, both companies inked their own agreements where they will gain access to Twitter’s real time data (tweets) and include those with their search engines. Though search engine data is typically fairly current, they lack the real time data that attracts people to Twitter in the first place.

What this means is that the next time you use Google Search or Bing (Microsoft’s search engine) you’ll find some real time tweets included with the results. Google says that these results will appear within the next few months, while Microsoft is mum about their plans. How all of this will work out is a mystery too – there are plenty of tweets of little value and aren’t worthy of inclusion in my opinion.

Long Term Survival

Long term, ensuring Twitter’s independence may depend on two things – licensing deals with the search engines and some way to harness businesses by charging them a fee for them to access Twitter under their real name. The way things are currently set up if you want to hijack a business name or brand you can do so by sending tweets under the guise of someone else. With a new business model in the works, that won’t be possible because Twitter will step up its verification of certain users and eliminate that scourge completely.

Lastly, how will Facebook respond to these Twitter happenings? Rumors that it will come out with its own microblogging feature have surfaced from time to time. With more than 300 million users, Facebook is a force to be reckoned with, one that could over run Twitter if they find some way to blend their current business model with microblogging.

I must admit that I haven’t embraced Bing yet, the new search engine from Microsoft. Then again, I haven’t forgotten about it, making the occasional foray over there to see what is new or different. I’m still finding that some results served are off, including photos attributed to me that really aren’t mine. No matter, I was intrigued when I discovered that Long Zheng had developed an API (application programming interface) that puts Bing on steroids, one of the niftiest I’ve seen to date.

The Real Live Search

Dubbed, “The Real Live Search” by Zheng, this API delivers search results almost as fast as you can type them. For example, as I was typing in “New York Giants” the results quickly narrowed to the city and finally to the team. I should say “lastly” as there wasn’t anything slow about how the results were “finally” served – the moment I was done I received a list of links, several photographs and additional links to related searches including “New York Giants Logo” and “New York Giants schedule” among others.

Zheng must be some sort of wonder kid as I have at least two pairs of shoes that have been around longer than he has. At the ripe young age of 21, Zheng runs the istartedsomething.com website which is is where he demonstrates his technological prowess.

Born in mainland China, Zheng moved to Australia when he was nine and is currently majoring in Marketing Communications and Multimedia Systems Enterprise at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. In addition to his studies, Zheng works for a software development firm in Sydney and takes on other “obscure” projects with friends.

Up & Running Fast

In his blog post describing The Real Live Search, Zheng mentions that the tool took him just a few hours to build which also means that it could prove buggy. Moreover, with tech sites picking up the news about Zheng’s project, there is a good chance that the site will crash by the time that you look it over.

Me thinks that this kid has a bright future ahead of him. I’m checking out some of his other blog posts to see what he is discussing.

Bing Still Bouncing

Speaking of Bing, the new search engine’s share of the marketplace is now up to 8.9 percent, in the US market. Bing still trails Google who controls 64.7 percent of the market and Yahoo which has 19.3 percent of all searches, which means that if Bing and Yahoo were one right now, the Bing would control just over 28 percent of the search engine market.

Microsoft may want to consider hiring Zheng; his Bing API truly rocks!

See Also – Bing, Bong Yahoo Search Is Dead!

Microsoft Wins Big

Microsoft clearly comes out ahead in this ten year business agreement as the technology company doesn’t have to fork over any cash to complete the deal as Yahoo once hoped would happen. Even though it has only been in operation for two months, Bing has received high marks as a search engine and is considered to be better than Yahoo Search which currently controls 20% of the US search market, well behind first place Google Search who has 65%. By replacing Yahoo Search, Bing will suddenly have 28% of the market, positioning itself to chip away at Google market share.

Since it got started, Bing has been grabbing market share from Yahoo, not Google. At the same time, Google’s share has been increasing at the expense of Yahoo, not Bing. Getting squeezed from both sides, Yahoo probably figured that Bing would one day eventually pass Yahoo Search so why not monetize the situation in exchange for getting out?

Surrender, Yahoo Search!

In exchange for surrendering to Microsoft, Yahoo will get to keep 88% of revenue generated from all ads that run alongside search requests on its website for the first five years of the deal. In addition, Yahoo will have the right to sell search ads on as yet to be determined Microsoft sites. If Microsoft is smart, they’ll turn over the ad space for the unpopular Windows Vista microsite to Yahoo, the worst operating system in the world! Just kidding.

Yahoo has been rocked by bad management decisions and an unfortunate economy, turning down a bid a few years back to sell itself to Microsoft for $47.5 billion. With a current value of $22 billion, Yahoo is struggling to find its place on the internet, steadily falling behind Google and struggling with its stock which is trading at just over $15 a share. You have to wonder if some Yahoo heads will roll over the deal too as Bing absorbs what was once the number two search engine.

Sources: TechCrunch, Microsoft, Yahoo

See Also — Bada BING, Bada Boom: Microsoft’s New Search Engine Emerges

Bing Goes Live

Whispers of a new Microsoft search engine have been heard for some time with a full scale announcement and preview offered late last week. Today is the date that Bing officially goes live, but if you’re like most of the other curious folks who have a passion for search, then you’ve already checked it out in preview. Often too.

Until now, we’ve had to endure Live Search, the most recent version of the Microsoft search engine prior to Bing. Admittedly, I use Google Search almost exclusively, heading over to Yahoo Search only when I need to check Yahoo Site Explorer out to see how my websites are performing. MSN is usually a non-thought, never getting a chance to prove itself simply because it has failed to prove itself so often in the past.

Giving Other Search Engines A Chance

Hey, don’t blame me — I gave Cuil a chance but quickly abandoned it when it turned out to be a miserable failure. On the other hand, I’ll continue to play around with Wolfram Alpha if and when I want to be entertained. Heck, Twitter Search is probably the funnest one of them all, offering up real time returns on what other people are tweeting about which sometimes can come in handy.

But, when it comes to searching for what you want to find on the internet, Google still rules, controlling about two-thirds of the market and not about to cede its place to a young upstart especially one operated by its bitter rival, Microsoft.

Relevant? Not Quite.

Naturally, when I go to a search engine I enter in my name to see how often it is returned and what sort of returns are served. By taking my full legal name in quotes — “Matthew C. Keegan” — I come up with more than one million results, at least ten times the number I typically find on Google Search. Hmmm….

Okay, I know that I am famous, but I doubt that every single one of those results is accurate. Perhaps more telling is that when I click on the Image tab associated with my name, I find three actual pictures of me with several others being of unrelated photos I’ve used on my many different sites and a handful of other pictures of various objects I’ve never seen before. I may write about car engines, but I resent being associated with a diesel engine!

Playing Around With Bing

I’m not very scientific when it comes to trying out a new search engine, rather I use many of the same tactics I employ on Google Search to give Bing a whirl. Usually, I know almost immediately if a search engine holds promise based on what it does versus what I already know what Google can do.

Bing, even with some results for certain search terms not being all that relevant, still offered up some accurate and informative results for other terms I like to use. In fact, I managed to find some Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) parallels with Google. I do like Bing’s clean interface and the preview information about each result that appears when you hover over it is certainly handy.

Not yet cluttered with a bunch of ads, the Bing “surface” is easy on the eyes, simple to navigate and doesn’t have that “thrown together” feel of Cuil. I like clicking on the Maps tab to find a location which shows how to get there from here while also revealing an aerial view, bird’s eye look and more. I will happily toss Mapquest for the chance to use Bing Maps, what may end up being an important pull to get me binging the ‘net.

Binging The ‘Net

All that said, I liked previewing Bing and plan to spend more quality time with the web’s newest search engine in the days and weeks ahead. Cuil failed out of the box, but Bing appears to have enough going for it to make a serious run as a search engine.

Will Bing challenge Google? It may, especially given Microsoft’s plan to throw $80-100 million dollars in advertising at it. Of course, Google won’t roll over without a fight which means that the winner of this battle will ultimately prove to be you, the web user.

See Also – Wolfram Alpha, The Only Search Engine You Need?