Google has announced a search deal withTwitter, which will see updates on
Twitter appearing in Google search results.
The deal comes shortly after Microsoft announced it would
include Twitter updates in its
Bing search engine results.
Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user
experience at Google, said searches that will benefit from
real-time information will include weather conditions in a
particular place, because there will be tweets from people who are
there with up-to-the-minute information.
Mayer said the importance of real-time data has grown
exponentially as people find different types of uses for
Twitter.
It has played an important role in helping to report
international news events, especially those where the authorities
have prevented information from being spread by tradition means
like the Iran election earlier this year.
She said, "In the past few years, an entirely new type of data
has emerged - real-time updates like those on Twitter have appeared
not only as a way for people to communicate their thoughts and
feelings, but also as an interesting source of data about what is
happening right now in regard to a particular topic."