Twitter Tweets Now Being Indexed by Bing and Google

by Wendy on October 29th, 2009

If your business isn’t using Twitter yet, here’s two more reasons you should:

1) Google will be integrating Tweets into its search engine results. From the Google Blog:

“…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.”

According to Google Watch, Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience, announced at the Web 2.0 Summit that Twitter content will be integrated into Google’s search results page, so that fast-rising queries like Michael Jackson, Google Wave, will be surfaced in a Google One Box. The results will be ranked according to relevance.

2) Microsoft’s Bing has already begun to index Twitter posts. You can see Bing’s Beta effort at http://www.bing.com/Twitter.

Although Bing represents only 9% of the search engine market, this new weapon in its Internet search war with Google (65%) will give it an advantage in its ongoing attempts to lure traffic away from Google. And, until Google launches its Twitter platform, Bing is the best way outside of Twitter’s own website to find out what people are saying in real time through their Tweets.

Twitter allows users to post short, 140 character updates, on what they are doing. Users – or Tweeps – distribute quick thoughts, news, ideas, and links. Think of Twitter as “micro” blogging since each individual Tweet is like a very small blog post.

With the rapid growth of Twitter, more companies are exploring how they can best use it. Gartner Research has identified four primary ways that business organizations are leveraging Twitter:

Direct: The company uses Twitter as a marketing or public relations channel. Much like an extension of their corporate blogs, companies Tweet about corporate accomplishments and distribute links to press releases and promotional Web sites.This method is probably the easiest way to get started, but typically won’t go over well in the Twitter culture. A series of self-serving, promotional Tweets will damage a company’s brand. Twitterers like a person touch, so work to build community. To see some examples of brands that “get” how to tweet and respond, check out how Ford, Sharpies, Starbucks, or Dell are using Twitter.

Inbound Signaling: Twitter streams provide a rich source of information about what customers, competitors and others are saying about a company. Search tools like search.twitter.com or the twhirl application can scan for references to particular company or product names.

Indirect: The company’s employees use Twitter to enhance and extend their personal reputations, thereby enhancing the company’s reputation. Good Twitterers enhance their personal reputation by saying clever, interesting things, attracting many followers who go on to read their blogs. As people enhance their personal brands, some of this inevitably rubs off on their employers. Twitter provides a way of raising the profile of both individuals and the organizations they work for, which elevates these companies that want to be seen to employ influential leaders. (Be warned: this can backfire since negative Tweets by employees can hurt your brand).

Internal: Employees use the platform to communicate about what they are doing, projects they are working on and ideas that occur to them. It is crucial that employees understand the limitations of the platform and never discuss confidential matters, because as a seemingly innocuous Tweet about going to see a particular client can tip off a competitor. Other providers, such as Yammer and Present.ly, provide Twitter-like functions targeted at enterprise microblogging with more security and corporate control.

Here are a couple of resources to help your company get familiar with how other businesses do this:

So, jump on Twitter. Test it. See what new connections it brings to your business. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. And now that both Bing and Google will be indexing Tweets, every time you use Twitter it creates another opportunity for people to discover your company brand.