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Microsoft renews its real-time search vows with Twitter

Microsoft and Twitter have signed a deal via which real-time search results from Twitter will be displayed via Bing. The pair aren't disclosing further details or terms.
Written by Mary Jo Foley, Senior Contributing Editor

Microsoft and Twitter seem to have renewed their deal via which Twitter results will show up as part of the real-time search results in Bing (at least if you go by a series of flirty tweets between the @bing and @Twitter accounts on Twitter).

There's no press release and no blog post announcing the renewal. In fact, all a Microsoft spokesperson would say when asked is:

“We are pleased to announce that we are extending our collaboration with Twitter.  We are not sharing terms of the agreement.”

Microsoft officials are not commenting on what the pair are collaborating on -- if anything -- beyond Twitter's provision of real-time search results.

As AllThingsD reported in mid-July that after failing to come to terms with Google for its “firehose” data stream licensing deal with Google, Twitter was trying to close a similar deal with Microsoft. After the Google-Twitter deal expired on July 2, Google took its entire real-time search product offline, AllThingsD noted. More details from AllThingsD's July story:

"Bing, whose original Firehose deal — which like Google’s was signed in the fall of 2009 — was for six months longer than Google’s. Among the less contentious terms is the licensing fee. Twitter wants about $30 million per year for its exhaustive real-time stream, a doubling of the previous fee. But Microsoft (like Google) hasn’t yet agreed to Twitter’s other demands: More user interface control, a larger cut of ads sold next to its tweets and more linking back to Twitter, sources said. Microsoft would also like a longer term than Twitter is offering."

In other search-related news in the Microsoft realm, Carol Bartz has been fired from her role as Yahoo's CEO. Bartz became CEO shortly after Microsoft's proposal to buy Yahoo for $45 billion fell through -- in large part due to the foot-dragging of former Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang.

When Microsoft and Yahoo finally cemented a partnership in place of a buyout deal, it was Carol Bartz who signed on the dotted line along with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. What will today's news mean, if anything, for the Microsoft-Yahoo relationship in the future? It's probably too soon to say, given the search partnership between the pair, signed in 2009, was a 10-year contract....

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