Bing Search Will Plaster Twitter Tweets All Over the Web

Warning: Your next Twitter exchange or Facebook update could instantly appear in a subject-related search on Microsoft's Bing and become a permanent part of the Web's boundless data base.

While there are plenty of creative ways marketers will capitalize on widespread social networking search to sell their goods and services, this phenomenon may be more than Twitter and Facebook fans bargained for.

Microsoft clearly is euphoric about beating Google to the punch with plans to integrate real-time tweets and Facebook posts into its Bing generated searches. Google, which has more than 65 percent of the search market, will soon follow with a similar service that could provide new ways to generate social network revenue.

Microsoft, Twitter and Facebook have not revealed the economic model for their new arrangement which could involve sharing search advertising revenues. But that will eventually beg the question of whether users -- as the original producers of the comment content -- should also be compensated.

Microsoft's Bing will sort tweets and public Facebook updates in different ways (such as most recent or best match) and provide a real-time index of to match them to individual queries. Microsoft digital chief Qi Lu said at this week's Web 2.0 conference in Orlando, FL. It's all about "user intent" and thinking about search ""holistically", he said.

Widespread social network search could alter the spontaneous nature of otherwise private or semi-private text exchanges on Twitter and Facebook, even though they provide users with tools to limit outside access to their comments and personal posts.

Once a public Facebook update or a 140-character tweet becomes part of a vast viral distribution system, it becomes content or a marketing device for the masses in perpetuity.

This is just the tip of the iceberg in what promises to be a tangle of social network, search and commercial endeavors. Lost in the shuffle this week was news about Google's new social search tool that provides search results from across multiple social networks including Gmail.

Google and Facebook also said they will begin integrating music into their search and social services. Facebook's 10-cent or 90-cent song gifts will add yet another dimension to the updates carried over into Bing or Google searches.

The broader implications of such rapid-fire social network developments are suggested by the findings of a new Pew Internet & American Life Project study revealing that one in five Internet users rely on Twitter or other social services to exchange personal or business information and status updates. That is an increase to 19 percent from just 11 percent last spring.

Twitter is becoming the communications shorthand "default mode" for smart phones and other mobile devices that are the universal screen of choice for personal and professional use, according to Pew. More than half of domestic Internet users have a wireless Web connection,and more than one quarter of them rely on Twitter or other social networks to communicate.

At the same Web 2.0 conference, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts (who is negotiating to acquire NBC Universal) conceded that Twitter has changed his company's culture. Google CEO Eric Schmidt predicted that in five years, the lines of distinction will blur between texting, video and audio.

"The next time you search for something that can be aided by a real-time observation, say, snow conditions at your favorite ski resort, you'll find tweets from other users who are there," Google vice president Marissa Mayer said in explaining the new social networking search service.

Then again, you might find a whole lot more than that.