Forum Moderators: mack
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.
Anyone know how these are going to show in the SERPs? I mean, if I set my FB status to "mowing in my underwear", will I be found by people looking for those keywords?
I also wonder if there's a pile of cash changing hands. Twitter won't have to do much, but Facebook is going to have to make some platform changes.
We are very excited to announce that we have reached an agreement with Twitter to include their updates in our search results. We believe that our search results and user experience will greatly benefit from the inclusion of this up-to-the-minute data, and we look forward to having a product that showcases how tweets can make search better in the coming months.
Guess Who?
[edited by: encyclo at 12:24 am (utc) on Oct. 22, 2009]
[edit reason] switched to direct link to source [/edit]
That way, 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 and sharing the latest and greatest information.
Basically both M$ and G are going down a blind alley: status updates are pure and absolute garbage, especially on Facebook (aka: "can't wait for the week end", "happy to be back", etc...). The only time this is not true for Twitter is during civil unrest or emergency situations, where tweets can be the first to break a story. However this is a rare situation and I doubt it will get in the SERPs quickly enough.
Second, this is a huge privacy concern: all of a sudden your number one activity (updating your useless status) becomes public and the target of random or not so random searches.
This is pretty crazy when you think about it.
Second, this is a huge privacy concern:
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.
It has a place, but not mixed with normal search results. If I want read stupid tweets, I'll go to twitter.
So how does it work and why is it a good thing?
It reminds me of the late 1990s when you couldn't search for anything on the internet without coming across websites dedicated to people's cats. It seems the SEs have spent so much time weeding the flower bed, now they're dropping a huge compost heap on top of it.
Like Hugene said, I reckon this will come into play when there is some large, breaking news that large amounts of people know about before the news sites can get an article written and published. I'm thinking earthquakes, power cuts, extreme weather - I assume the results will highlight whatever event that is being spoken about in Facebook/Twitter, but obviously (read: hopefully!) they won't display every single status and/or link that mentions the given event!
I guess this could be quite dependent on how quickly a status can make it into Google/Bing - if it's close to real-time, this could become a really powerful ally - linking into this whole new user generated content world (or whatever that buzz term is now!). Just imagine - you're in London searching earthquakes in England for some research or something. Little did you know there was an earthquake in sunny Dudley (UK) half an hour before. Twitter and Facebook are full of people talking about it, yet I doubt it would be mentioned on BBC or anywhere else like that. It's possible that it would be mentioned in your search results, even before the media get a hold of it.
Now that could be quite cool.
2) You can bet SERPs will continue to move towards to combined/universal search categorized areas like we see in Korea already (at least get their own tabs in the meantime?). Adding feeds from twitter and facebook will probably serve as a catalyst to that end...cause as people have commented, feeds just mixed in with "regular" web results will end up looking like a potluck stew--not in the good way.
3) And who says twitter needs to make money (and fb--though they are fine already)? More interesting to guess how long it takes for twitter to get bought by whoever-for-whatever-absurd-amount-of-money just for "value-added" of twitter service and users to the buyers current services.
THAT's the best twitter business model - just OEM and give value FOR SOMEONE ELSE. I mean has googlemaps in-and-of itself make any money? No, but its a big win for G (same for Blogger in that regard)
so sayeth GrendelKhan{TSU}
I don't see how status updates can provide meaningful information over and above what commercial entities, like the ski resort web pages or weather web pages, can provide
I wholeheartedly disagree.
Webmasters don't sit at their computers all day entering information about traffic accidents and network statuses and whether or not the fall fair was canceled on account of snow. But all those drones out there roving the world with their blackberry in a constant twitterthon, do.
When there's a noteworthy event, it always shows up in Twitterfeeds before it shows up on mainstream media sites. When you're packing up the kids to go to the Georgetown Santa Claus parade and you want to know if it's starting late, Twitter is going to tell you whereas the official Georgetown Web Site maintained on weekdays by municipal employees sure as heck ain't.
fall fair was canceled on account of snow
I don't see the use case here: person A goes to fair, fair canceled because of snow, A tweets about it (must be pretty explicit tweet like : "Fair at Widget Town, Widget State is canceled because of snow", and we know that usually tweets are more like "fair canceled, darn", aka with 0 value), person B leaves home, on doorstep person B decides to search G for "fair in Widget Town, widget state?", G has already indexed the tweet from person A (in less than 60 min lets say), G returns to person B the tweet from A and B doesn't go.
To me there are too many "needs", "musts" and "ifs" in this use case: it will simply never happen.
Any serious fair organizer will update his site immediately, or his blog, or his tweet, if the event is canceled. True, you might say that this will get indexed by G, but putting the SE in the middle of the conversation is a useless step, just adds complexity. Person A and B should simply visit fair site or subscribe to tweet/RSS of fair.
MS has its server side and client side DB solutions, OS, Office, Browser as primary strengths, so it absolutely needs to hold on to them, and the only way is by its search solution gaining bigger and bigger market share. MS finally got the point, a dominant search engine = dominant computing solutions provider, G* is not moving on its patch that easily. If G* wants to compete with its own browser, own OS, own office suite etc, MS is attacking from behind and moving on its search solution. In my view, G* will become the Xerox and Amstrad story of the 1980s (Xerox known for scanner and copiers and never managed to become the next IBM or Dell with its PCs....)
it will simply never happen
Actually, it did. Last weekend. I wasn't making up a fake situation.
The Sturbridge MA Harvest Festival was shut down on account of the freakish October showstorm on Sunday. Before leaving, I checked the Publick House website and there was no indication of anything cancelled, so I packed up the family, we drove to Sturbridge, and we were surprised by the excellent parking spaces available. The big tent was erected, but no one was in it. The scarecrow contest was still set up from the day before, but the guy selling kettle popcorn wasn't around. The whole area was deserted, with no indication on the organizer's website that anything was called off.
So then I checked Twitter, and sure enough there were dozens of tweets from that morning, variations of #sturbridgefallfair canceled! #snow #crappyweather so sad! jonesing for mulled apple cider, #*$!? #sturbridge
The lesson: I should have searched Twitter before leaving. If Goo or Bing wants to help me find that info, I appreciate their effort.
Maybe they announced the cancellation on the local radio station. But we weren't the only car trolling slowly down the street wondering what was going on, before turning around and heading back to the I-90.
Next time hotmail is down, check how long it takes for MSN to post a network status update on the page where they are supposed to post network status updates. Then check twitter and I'll guarantee you'll find hundreds of people flaming.
QED
This has gone a bit off topic. But my point was, Twitterfeed is more current than any mainstream media news, and Goog/Bing are both wise to tap into it, because it's a source of fresh content not available anywhere else.
1) non-exclusive or not.. still a big win and opportunity for Bing/MS. I think its more the point that Google (or whoever) has not signed anything.
Yay, Microsoft called dibs on a bunch of useless status updates!
2) You can bet SERPs will continue to move towards to combined/universal search categorized areas like we see in Korea already (at least get their own tabs in the meantime?). Adding feeds from twitter and facebook will probably serve as a catalyst to that end...cause as people have commented, feeds just mixed in with "regular" web results will end up looking like a potluck stew--not in the good way.
At least you realize that Facebook/Twitter comments should not be mixed with useful results.
spent so much time weeding the flower bed, now they're dropping a huge compost heap on top of it.
First of all, there's a real opportunity for dis-information. Let's say you've got a grudge against the promoters of the Widget Festival because they won't let you participate. So you set up a fake Twitter account with some like-minded co-conspirators and start a stream of babble about the show being closed due to an outbreak of H1N1 virus, or because of broken toilets, or because of a bomb scare -- whatever. Gets picked up by the SE's and the rumor has legs.
And of course the Black Hat SEO crowd will have a field day with this development. You can bet your sweet bippy they are already brainstorming to work out strategies designed to push the SERPs in their direction. We thought link farms were bad -- that will seem like the Golden Days when those strategies hit the big time, not by one shady SEO firm, but by hundreds.
Unless B & G have killer filters ready to roll, we may very well see a new level of chaos and garbage -- not good news for anyone trying to promote a legitimate biz.
As an afterthought, the lower quality listings mixed into the SERPs may bode well for PPC, if people come to see the free results as unreliable.
...........................
