Bing is now doing Twitter. The recently launched Microsoft search engine is now allowing users to search for various kinds of real-time data, including tweets from Twitter. Sean Suchter, general manager of Microsoft’s Search Technology Center, wrote on the Bing blog Wednesday that the search engine is “unveiling an initial foray into integrating more real-time data into our search results, starting with some of the more prominent and prolific Twitters from a variety of spheres.” Gore, Seacrest, More These initial Twitterers, he wrote, include former Vice President Al Gore, American Idol host Ryan Seacrest, and notables in search technology and business. Microsoft will update Twitter results every 60 seconds, using the Twitter API. Initially, Bing will only be indexing a few thousand Twitterers, based on follower count and number of tweets. As an example, Suchter said a user could type “Kara Swisher Twitter,” “Kara Swisher Tweets,” or even “@karaswisher” as a search query and the results would show the latest

tweets for Swisher, as well as a link to “see more tweets.” Swisher is a Wall Street Journal tech columnist. Brad Shimmin, an analyst with industry research firm Current Analysis, said Bing is joining the parade of search engines that allow users to query real-time information, with some engines specifically designed for that function. Twitter profiles and older tweet streams are searchable on many engines, but Bing is reportedly the first to allow Twitter to be searched in this way. “This isn’t revolutionary,” he said, but is part of a search-industry trend as it recognizes that the Web isn’t static, but includes many forms of real-time or near-real-time communications. The realization, he said, began with search engines including blogs, and has now moved to include Facebook postings and other very frequently updated, Web-based communications. He added that this new feature is also Microsoft trying to offer more…

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Bing Searches Up-To-the-Minute Tweets on Twitter